There wasn't a dry eye at the personal launch event for JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST at Lawrence Norfolk's home - or a less than satisfied palate. Celebrating the launch of JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST, Lawrence enjoyed the night with friends, family and delectable food to satisfy epicurean tastes as David Moore, friend and owner of Pied-a-Terre a 2-Michelin starred restaurant in Charlotte Street, catered the stylish event.
Bloomsbury publisher, Alexandra Pringle, gave a heartfelt and warming introduction to Lawrence and will host a formal launch party on her houseboat later this week. Lawrence then made a speech of such generosity in which he movingly thanked his mother (who passed away in December) his wife and his agent Carole Blake as the 3 women who had sustained him throughout the book.
JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST has had an overwhelming positive response and we are overjoyed for Lawrence's continuous success.
Praise for JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST:
'A lyrical tale of historical havoc set in the English Civil War, with cookery as salvation.'
Eithne Farry, Marie Claire
'All of Lawrence Norfolk's novels - there have been two others since his spectacular debut, LEMPRIERE'S DICTIONARY, in 1991 - give the reader food for thought. However his latest offering is stuffed with thoughts about food… in Norfolk's skilful hands, there is no danger of verbal indigestion. JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST is the most accessible of his works. A grown-up fairy tale - complete with pretty pictures …Norfolk knows how to make words roll around the mouth…even if cherries don't bake your cake there is plenty of other delights on offer…Fantastical architecture and weird botany are a vivid background to the bloody conflict and swooning romance. Norfolk is an expert on obscure sources as well as sauces. His blend of horrid history and oddly credible fantasy deserves to be consumed by the masses.' -- Mark Sanderson, The Sunday Telegraph
'A book to lose oneself in. The beautiful writing draws you in; the entrancing story keeps you there. Brilliant, evocative…a sumptuous feast for the soul.' -- Jane Sharp, Waterstones Watford
'Dense in research and intellectual ambition…Norfolk's novels have always expanded their readers' vocabularies, and JOHN SATURNALL'S FEAST is no exception…What may come across as a novel indicting Protestantism's suppression of fun, sex and good food (it's Protestant groups who smash up the manor and lay waste to its subterranean kitchens where Saturnall finesses his culinary skills; it's civil war that destroys his supply lines and thwarts his surreptitious affair with Lucretia), is really a broader exploration of control.' -- Stuart Jeffries, The Guardian