An elegant, enthralling novel. I found I couldn't stop reading this intimiste epic of social change in the years leading up to the First World War. It has the lustre of life, beautiful and poignant -- ADAM FOULDS

This poised, Jamesian debut novel about a Manchester family in the lead up to the first world war is a masterclass in detail and atmosphere ... As with Breugel’s painting, it’s the incidental which is momentous, the everyday given such intimate attention that it becomes extraordinary … Reading this book feels like stepping through a hushed and ornate museum, or a model village whose simulacrum of real life is so perfect as to be unsettling - OBSERVER

Super-assured ... Wholly convincing lives, described and written with great limpid precision of language -- WILLIAM BOYD

A wonderful evocation of period - through language, clothes, objects - any reader will be irresistibly transported to Manchester and the lives of this strange Edwardian family -- TIM PEARS

Captures the broad canvas of a vibrant city, as well as the fine grain of daily life … A deeply satisfying meshing of the vast sweep of history with the familiar textures of lives as they are lived - GUARDIAN

Exquisite - METRO

Immaculately written … the detail and the dialogue are acutely rendered - LITERARY REVIEW

Immaculately written … O’Riordan imbues his narrative with an acutely modern awareness of power and capitalism - THE TIMES

Elegant and engaging … Beautifully observed detail and skilful evocation of the turbulence of the time - DAILY MAIL

It's bloody brilliant -- GUY GARVEY

Beguiling ... A read to warm a winter evening - DAILY MAIL, Books of the Year

Strong on atmosphere … Lyrical - TABLET

Compelling ... The novel's considered portrait of upper-class lives brings a Jamesian quality to this debut - IRISH TIMES

O’Riordan’s prose is exquisite, and his tone cool and ironic, while subtly drawing attention to the barriers of class, gender and sexuality - FINANCIAL TIMES

Adam O’Riordan was born in Manchester in 1982 and read English at Oxford University. In 2008 O’Riordan became the youngest Writer in Residence at The Wordsworth Trust, the Centre for British Romanticism. His first collection of poetry, In the Flesh, won a Somerset Maugham Award in 2011. He is Academic Director of the Manchester Writing School at Manchester Metropolitan University. The Burning Ground is his first collection of short stories.