The TLS reviewer, Ruth Scurr
, used as yardstick for this novel Kipling
's writings about his parallel childhood trauma and experience of evil (related in the story Baa Baa Black Sheep).
This amazingly complex novel received very positive reviews in Britain. Helen Dunmore
in The Times called the plot huge and vigorous and the novel rewarding, incisive and topical.
Marina Warner: Novelist and Mythographer. http://www.marinawarner.com.
Times Literary Supplement reviewer Ruth Scurr
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
Ruth Scurr
, reviewing this book for the Times Literary Supplement, detected in its first paragraph a flash of the steely impatience that MSdirects at flawed humanity.
Scurr, Ruth. “Sins against the Holy Spirit”. Times Literary Supplement, 5 Mar. 2004, pp. 21-2.
21
While most reviews were respectful,...
Literary responses
Muriel Spark
Ivy Compton-Burnett
, who always disliked religious sentiment and religious writing, was severe on MS
. She described her early novels as Not at all good. . . . I don't like novels that tell...
Literary responses
Elizabeth Jane Howard
Ruth Scurr
in the Telegraph judged EJH
to be as impressive a writer as ever in this novel, and instanced her handling of dialogue among children.
Scurr, Ruth. “All Change, by Elizabeth Jane Howard, review”. The Telegraph, 16 Nov. 2013.