Half of the Human Race

Beautifully constructed

Peter Wilby, Observer

An exhilarating love story

Sunday Telegraph

Trench warfare is vividly described: the agonizing wait for dawn, the despairing bravery of those going 'over the top', the futility, the waste, the sadness. Anthony Quinn tells this part of his tale faultlessly, and without a cliché... poetic.

Mary Blanche Ridge, The Tablet

A highly readable book about love, loyalty and integrity

Kathy Stephenson, Daily Mail

Enthralling... In effortlessly fluent prose, Quinn keeps you riveted until the very end

Simon Humphreys, Mail on Sunday

Few books boast a suffragette heroine and a professional cricket hero but Anthony Quinn's second novel pulls off such a strange pairing because it is old-fashioned in a very good way... Quinn memorably foregrounds the humanity of the characters...and tells their stories wonderfully

Metro

Powerful and touching

Clare Clark, Guardian

What lights up Half of the Human Race is not only the Suffragist movement in all its glory and lunacy, but Quinn's affection for his cast... So often, historical fiction relies on research for its colour and depth of interest, but these are people who feel absorbingly real in their misunderstandings, jokes, troubles and passions...and this makes the novel equally interesting to both sexes...moving... compelling... satisfying

Amanda Craig, Daily Telegraph

Excellent and surprising... wonderfully rich... A thoroughly absorbing and moving novel and it is a testament to the author's adaptability and energy that he is equally at home writing about feminist civil rights, cricket, prisons, art and medicine. And love. Especially love. A good all-rounder indeed

Melissa Katsoulis, The Times

Quinn's impeccable eye for detail, perfect pitch for the nuances of dialogue, and the quiet, understated passion that enlivens his writing combine here to make his considerable achievement seem effortless... The Rescue Man won prizes. Half of the Human Race should follow in its footsteps and establish its author as one of our most impressive novelists

Peter Stanford, Independent

This is only Anthony Quinn's second novel, but you would never guess it from the expert way he marshals his material, telling a human story in a literate, intelligent way... The real guts of the book can be found in the character of Connie. She is sprightly, impulsive, independent-minded... You really care what happens to her....an exhilarating love story

David Robson, Daily Telegraph

A seamless tapestry...The rhythm of rejection and understanding in Connie and Will's relationship is mapped out with care and precision. The permutations between them and sad, lonely and are explored with such exemplary meticulousness that you can't help but be touched

Adam Lively, Sunday Times

With crisp prose and evocative description, Anthony Quinn's second novel embodies early 20th century Britain with aplomb and exhumes a political plight that still has great relevance

Eastern Daily Press

Not just an exhilarating love story... a bold, impressive novel

Waitrose Weekend

Thrilling

Financial Times

An exhilarating love story

Sunday Telegraph

The Suffragette movement and pre-war country cricket might seem an odd couple for a novel but Anthony Quinn marries them perfectly in a nostalgic and compelling tale whose themes of love and friendship on and off the pitch will appeal to lovers of romance and cricket alike.

The Cricketer

Set at the same time as E. M. Forster's novels, this intelligent antidote to Downton Abbey is written with wit, narrative craft and elegant prose.

Daily Telegraph (Five stars)

The characters are subtly drawn and the period touches, particularly the sporting passages, have an authentic ring

Simon Shaw, Daily Mail

Quinn’s novel concerns the stalling romance between a suffragette and a cricketer, set amid war and middle-class Edwardian mores. This chalk-and-cheese couple and their stifling environment are equally well crafted

Holly Kyte, Sunday Telegraph