Sweet Caress: The Many Lives of Amory Clay - Softcover

An utterly compelling read . The effect of Amory is that of an interesting woman with a life well-lived, who is not content to sit back and be beautiful as an adored wife or mistress. She grasps every opportunity with both hands, wherever it leads her. Not a bad epitaph, and a tribute to Boyd's skill that we miss her like a friend when we, and she, reach the end (Independent)

Sweet Caress is a rattling good "what will happen next?" story and, on another level, a meditation, in fiction, on women and the lens."Caress" is just the right word for the feel of this novel. Boyd deals with heavy themes with the lightest touch. We're lucky to have him writing for us (John Sutherland The Times)

Boyd is as good as ever at capturing time and place, and at blurring the line between fact and fiction . A highly enjoyable read (Daily Telegraph)

One of Britain's best and best-loved storytellers . A skilfully plotted, cleverly constructed and highly entertaining novel. It's a book crying out for screen adaptation (Sunday Express)

Witty and resourceful, Boyd's heroine immediately appeals . This is the story of a life shaped and scarred by war and also by those accidents of fate over which none of us can exert power (Daily Mail)

William Boyd is a gifted chronicler of lives both enigmatic and artistic . Rich in psychological depth, zingy characters and period detail (Mail on Sunday)

Boyd is a gifted storyteller . This is his fourth novel with a female protagonist and depicts every stage of Amory's life - from first kisses and teenage passions through to the pain of infertility - so convincingly that I have to remind myself it's written by a man (Sunday Times Ireland)

Boyd is a gifted and intelligent story-teller, who possesses the charm to beguile us through a tale which, like all his novels, bears testimony to the damage inflicted on the human psyche by love and war (Amanda Craig Independent on Sunday)

Boyd is a brilliant novelist . Sweet Caress is an audacious, sweeping, rich layer cake of a novel, at once a textual hall of mirrors and a brilliant tale of a life well lived (Elizabeth Day Observer)

Clever and compelling . A thrilling piece of craft, a meditation on work and life and everything in between (Guardian)