I don't write many reviews, but this book demands recognition beyond a mere sprinkling of stars.

Susanna Clarke has deftly woven an alternative English history from raw materials with which we're all familiar. The result is a textured backdrop against which her story can play. And does it play! Her characters large and small have depths, incongruities and humour that give them a life of their own. The plot, like a medieval bridge, is strongly buttressed against human foible at one end and the entropy of "normal life" at the other, allowing it rise in a gravity-defying arch that seems all too slender for the weighty moral issues it supports.

Having read the book, I shall watch the television adaptation again. And then I'll look forward to re-reading the book in a year or so when the glorious particoloured undergrowth of detail has dimmed sufficiently for me to enjoy it all again.