A magnificent historical novel depicting the Restoration of England under Charles II and the restoration of our delightful central character, Robert Merival. From medical student to the king’s vet, from fool to dignified man, through the court to Bedlam and on to the Plague and the Great Fire, this is history brought very much to life. She is such a lovely author, you are in for a treat and when finished, you must move on to Music and Silence, her fine novel of the Danish court in the 17th century; it’s even better.
Robert Merivel abandons his medical studies for the vibrant Court of Charles II, where he finds unexpected favour with the King and serves as a `paper groom` to the youngest of the royal mistresses. But by falling in love with her, Merivel violates the one rule that will cast him out from his new found paradise. Driven to work in a Quaker Bedlam, he must endure a yet more painful fall from grace before he can achieve spiritual and social restoration.
'A most beautiful and original novel' - Kate Saunders, Independent
Author
About Rose Tremain
Rose Tremain's bestselling novels have won many awards, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home), the Whitbread Novel of the Year (Music & Silence), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Prix Femina Etranger (Sacred Country). Restoration was short-listed for the Booker Prize in 1989 and made into a film in 1995. The sequel, Merivel, was published to rapturous acclaim in 2012, and the Telegraph described the character of Robert Merivel as 'one of the great imaginative creations in English literature of the past fifty years'. Rose Tremain was made a CBE in 2007 and was appointed Chancellor of the University of East Anglia in 2013. She lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.