Caroline Blackwood combines a childlike neatness and exactitude of expression with an adult susceptibility to the charm of the unexpected and devious: an effective mix. - The Times Literary Supplement A fine creation-manic, at times demonic - Penelope Lively, Sunday Telegraphy Domesticity for Miss Blackwood has never been cozy; she listens for the ticking of the time bomb in the teapot. - Carolyn Geiser, The New York Times Book Review Funny, frightening and immensely enjoyable. The author writes with an appalled, amused intensity that is completely original but without a trace of pretentiousness. The result is unexpectedly powerful, like a box of chocolates with amphetamine centers. - Francis Wyndham, Sunday Times (London) One might say Blackwood practices a bullfighter’s feint. The author waves a red cape at us, knowing we will charge at the wrong target. The best example of this approach is Corrigan .

This 1984 novel is Blackwood’s loveliest and most craftily assembled work of fiction and, strange to say, her sunniest, though the sunshine arrives late in the day and in an extremely perverse yet logical manner&.There is a surprise lurking in its pages that overturns our understanding of what we’ve read about for a hundred pages or so, an enriching surprise that has been basking more or less in plain sight, but perhaps even more striking is the uncharacteristically wily optimism of Corrigan . - Gary Indiana, Bookforum.