"This book, its fascinating characters, steady paced plot, and haunting prose will stay with you long after reading." - Cosmopolitan (UK)
"If Succession and Downton Abbey had a baby, it might look something like this novel about a wealthy family facing an uncertain future . . . . Privilege has its own problems, and this engaging novel brings them to life." - Kirkus Reviews
"Hope wrangles her large cast with aplomb as she probes issues of class and stewardship. This gratifies." - Publishers Weekly
"The climax is well worth the wait-a big, fat, old-fashioned dinner gone wrong, with dramatic speeches and shocking
revelations . . . . Hope breathes fresh thinking into the dusty corners and overgrown hedges of the English country house dilemma-without telling the reader what to think. It meant that I closed
Albion with a delicious sense of uncertainty." -
The Times (UK)"Over four days, Hope turns these seemingly self-indulged, trope figures into relatable, believable characters, filling in backstories and defining relationships, all bolstered by a richly realized supporting cast . . . . This is an engaging story wrapped around crucial contemporary issues, resulting in a rich, satisfying read." -
Booklist" There are shades of both
Succession and
Saltburn at play here, with
Albion promising more of the emotional acuity that Anna Hope wielded so well in 2019's
Expectation." -
Independent (UK), "The Best Books to Look out for in 2025""The funeral of an English aristocrat sets the scene for a battle over inheritance, in an ambitious tale of empire and historical privilege." -
The Guardian (UK)"
Albion is exquisitely put together, with a tight structure and richly drawn characters." -
Literary Review"
Succession but set on a huge estate in Sussex . . . . An intense slow-burner of a family drama about inheritance and accountability." -
Good Housekeeping (UK)"Raises questions regarding our obligations to the environment and accountability for ancestors' crimes . . . .
Albion is (Hope's) finest to date . . . .
Albion is a welcome addition to the body of literature centred around inherited wealth, ancestral homes, and difficult family dynamics." -
Irish Times"A sensitively-written family saga that encapsulates the state of society today." -
The Herald"An engaging story wrapped around crucial contemporary issues, resulting in a rich, satisfying read." -
Booklist"Anna Hope's beautiful new novel
Albion explores the complexities of family, trauma, nature, human nature, landscape and escape in language that is as provocative as it is tender." -
Miranda Cowley Heller, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Paper Palace"Beautifully told . . . .Powerful and compelling,
Albion is a remarkable story. Highly recommended." -
Fresh Fiction"Hope takes her time unfolding this absorbing story of a supremely dysfunctional family, exploring class, privilege, climate change, colonialism and responsibility for the future and the past . . . . Hope avoids bludgeoning her readers with these weighty themes, deftly weaving her message about the foundation of wealth and where it comes from through an engrossing narrative studded with some beautiful descriptions of the natural world." -
A Life in Books"Albion is that most English of institutions, the pastoral country house gone to seed as family money has slowly been spent over the centuries, and North's novel is in the tradition of Ian McEwan's
Atonement, Evelyn Waugh's
Brideshead Revisited, or Kazuo Ishiguro's
Remains of the Day in using the stolid form of the country house with its manicured gardens and restrictive hedges as a means of examining the British class system." -
3 Quarks Daily"A superb, deftly woven novel . . . Anna Hope engages, head-on, with some of the most urgent and challenging issues facing the world today, and transforms them into spellbinding family drama." -
Jonathan Coe, author of Mr. Wilder & Me"At once a sumptuous family drama and state-of-the-nation novel, it's a triumphant read." -
The iPaper'"At once a sumptuous family drama and state-of-the-nation novel, it's a triumphant read from the author of the much-raved-about
Expectation." -
The i"The English country house novel re-imagined for our times: an exceptionally well-drawn portrait of a battling family, which also astutely wrestles with the issues around rewilding, inheritance, and colonialism." -
Claire Fuller, author of The Memory of Animals and Unsettled Ground"A book that asks important questions about legacy-familial, historical and global-and which seeks to answer them with delicate insight and beautiful prose." -
Elizabeth Day, author of Friendaholic and Magpie"A compassionate, immersive novel that intelligently navigates historical pride and guilt, and the echo of history that resonates powerfully through the lives of Anna Hope's compelling contemporary characters. Albion balances the reality of who the English were against the hope of who we might become." -
Richard Beard, author of Sad Little Men"Anna Hope plunges us straight into the claustrophobic world of a family turned inside out by the death of the deeply flawed patriarch, and propels us towards a devastating conclusion. Compelling." -
Kirsty Wark"A tour de force of a book. I love how Anna Hope weaves big ideas seamlessly into a compelling plot. It's such a fine balance to strike and she does it so skilfully."
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Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This
