The Northern Clemency (Paperback)

'Lovingly rooted in 1970s and 1980s Sheffield, "The Northern Clemency" effectively reclaimed a lost genre of politically astute, richly decorated provincial family saga for modern readers.' Boyd Tonkin, Independent (Book of the Year) 'A tremendous book. Against an unfashionable 1970s background Philip Hensher has composed not so much a condition-of-England as a condition-of-humanity novel, which is gripping and surprising and shocking in all kinds of unpredictable ways, and enormously wide in psychological and moral scope. What a writer he is!' Philip Pullman 'Wise and strong and unputdownable.' A.S. Byatt, Financial Times (Book of the Year) Alex Clark, Sunday Telegraph (Book of the Year) 'A remarkable novel!a cumulative effect of luminous richness, like a perfect piece of orchestration!something more than brilliant cleverness makes this novel extraordinary.' Jane Shilling, Sunday Times 'Engaging and hugely impressive. Hensher is an anatomist of familial tensions and marshals his large cast of characters deftly. He has an impeccable eye for nuances of character and setting, and the details of Seventies food and decor are lovingly done.' The Times 'Hensher has a forensic eye for detail, providing nightmarish glimpses of the everyday!engrossing, amusing and moving.' Independent 'Expansive yet precise, it leads the reader from the minutiae of family life to broad public events with the surest of hands.' Guardian 'Hensher is fascinatingly good on how social transformation manifests itself in the textures, colours and manners of a culture!extremely funny, but also deeply humane.' Robert Macfarlane, Sunday Times '"The Northern Clemency" -- vast, compendious, wearing its ambition like an outsize boutonniere -- makes a virtue of its exactness, its recapitulative zeal, its absolute determination to jam everything in and sit unshiftably on the lid.' D.J.Taylor, Independent on Sunday 'In a pin-sharp portrait of Sheffield this reviewer knows well, Hensher charts the shifting fortunes of the Glovers and the Sellers as they negotiate the seismically changing decades of the late 20th century.' Ross Gilfillan, Daily Mail 'The big question: is this novel worth, at a minute a page, 12 hours of our time? I think it is.' John Sutherland, Scotsman 'Hensher's is a bold, impressively sustained attempt to mark a transitional phase in modern Englishness as seen largely from the domestic sphere.' TLS 'A beautifully written book!as impressive in its scope as in the effortless artistry of the language. Its characters are well-defined and plausible, while the narrative is leavened with deftly observed humour that gently pokes its lower-middle class protagonists in the ribs.' Scotland on Sunday 'A suburban epic.' Financial Times 'An immense novel!Hensher presents the great drama and inexhaustible wonder of ordinary life.' Spectator '"The Northern Clemency" is a terrific novel -- a truly fine achievement.' New Statesman 'Combining his intelligence with a less expected humanity and storytelling drive, "The Northern Clemency" powerfully slices and preserves 20 years of British life and deserves to be remembered for at least that length of time.' Mark Lawson, Esquire 'His descriptive flourishes are a pleasure.' Sunday Telegraph 'Humane, historically literate, aware of the trangenital graze and sheer of public issue on private experience.' Independent Witty fun!not only extremely funny, but also deeply humane.' Sunday TImes

'A pin-sharp portrait of Sheffield.'