A comic masterpiece Patrick Gale GuardianPillar of society and stern upholder of Victorian values godfearing Norfolk merchant John Barnard presides over a large and largely unhappy family. This is their story his brandyswilling wife their hapless offspring and their changing fortunes over the decades. Sylvia Townsend Warners last novel The Flint Anchor gloriously overturns our ideas of history family and storytelling itself.A novel created with solidity and subtlety of feeling a fusion of warmth wit and quietly biting shrewdness that are reminiscent of Jane Austen Atlantic ReviewAs a sustained work of historical imagination it has few rivals ... one of the most acute and intelligent writers of her age Claire Harman