Small Bomb At Dimperley

An irresistible novel which combines a crumbling once-grand house, bumbling aristos clinging to the pre-war past, and the magnificent Zena Baxter, one of my all-time favourite heroines. This is Lissa Evans at the peak of her mighty powers

India Knight

Funny poignant, perfect period detail…it’s as if Barbara Pym and Evelyn Waugh had a secret love-child…Heaven!

Daisy Goodwin

A glorious read. I laughed many times rejoicing in the wit, cleverness and humanity

Elizabeth Buchan

This is better than Wodehouse, in my humble opinion, because it's believable as well as funny … Lissa Evans is a great comic writer and her portrait of an aristocratic family trying to cling to its privileges in the unforgiving aftermath of WW2 is all the funnier for being generous, touching and romantic rather than mean

Clare Chambers

I loved this. Brilliantly funny, moving and joyous. Also, there’s a perfect moment – when one character moves from liking someone to love

Catherine Johnson

Loaded with period detail, primed with characters you feel you’ve known for years, Small Bomb at Dimperley explodes comically, lovingly and very slightly wistfully into absolute delight. My best book (by a country mile) this year

Hilary McKay

Deeply enjoyable, lovable and poignant. I love Lissa Evans’ writing. Her characters are created with such affection and care it makes you wish you could step into the story and become one of them

Miranda France

I loved Small Bomb at Dimperley. From the first page I knew I wanted to spend time in this world, and when the time came, I didn’t want to leave it. The blend of funny and moving is notoriously elusive, but Lissa Evans finds the sweet spot with apparent effortlessness. Sharp, witty and warm. Press it on friends

Lev Parikian

I loved Small Bomb at Dimperley so much, I found myself reading slower & slower because I didn’t want it to end. Brilliantly funny, with a sharply observed cast of eccentric but utterly believable characters, it’s a masterclass in understated British fiction

Frances Quinn

One of our finest writers of literary entertainment

Spectator

Tightly plotted and extremely moving

Platinum Magazine

A funny and insightful microcosm during World War II

Irish Independent

A future classic

Woman&Home

Brilliantly written, gloriously funny... a heart-warming read about learning to live again

Sun

Perfectly pitched, funny tale, sprinkled with peppery observations and speckled with a poignant bitter-sweetness

Daily Mail

Is there an author quite so entertaining as Evans when it comes to blending satire, nostalgia and pluck?

Mail on Sunday

A heartwarming, witty historical novel about changing – sometimes reluctantly – with the times in the aftermath of World War Two

Press Association

A captivating blend of social commentary, and romance with a brilliantly atmospheric setting. A delight.

Best

Funny, touching and full of unforgettable characters, this is a future classic

Woman

Her gift for comic language and timing is evident everywhere in this joyful book

The Critic

A touching love story set in a dilapidated country house as the Second World War ends...Evans is so good at structuring this tale of Sir Valentine Vere-Thissett and evacuee Zena Baxter, placing it in an optimistic yet traumatized world

Observer

Evans is laugh-out-loud funny…She pairs her gift for humour with astute observations of the social world of her characters in these postwar years, when the old class certainties are as shaky as Dimperley’s guttering. Sometimes books that are this funny are easy to underestimate, but Small Bomb at Dimperley is wiser than a good many ponderously serious tomes. An absolute joy to read.

The Times, historical fiction book of the month October 2024

I fell head over heels for this charming read

Good Housekeeping

Absolutely delightful. Lissa Evans captures the end of an era with perception, tenderness and a sharp wit that makes the reader laugh aloud. Her eye for detail, the absurd and for human nature is total perfection

My Weekly

For fans of historical fiction, this is a must-read!

Pick Me Up

There is so much here that is culturally familiar: the immediate postwar era, the country house setting, and so on. However, Evans invests it all with a humane understanding of people, politics and the way that life actually works. She has a sharp appreciation of the almost imperceptible currents and ripples in domestic life and how they are affected by the vast oceanic sweep of social change.

Guardian