Praise for the Betty-Trask Prize-winning novel Bed

“Outlandishly clever description… Ingenious one-liners… There’s no question that [David Whitehouse] is a writer to watch.”

– Janet Maslin, New York Times

“A gorgeous, heartrending book, a book full of sentences so apt and well wrought, I sometimes had to read them twice.”

– Henry Alford, San Francisco Chronicle

“Gorgeous writing… A deceptively effortless, haunting first novel.”

– Boston Globe

“Staggering, inventive, and heartbreakingly beautiful.”

– Esquire (UK)

“A totally extraordinary and original novel.”

– Heat (UK)

Praise for Mobile Library

“A great read and a touching and funny exploration of the true meaning of family.”

– S. J. Watson, author of Before I Go To Sleep

“A great, tender-hearted story about stories. It’s a book about what books can give us, and how they can add to our adventure – or even take us on one. A lovely read.”

– Matt Haig, author of The Humans

“An agreeably old-fashioned story with likable characters and just enough suspense to keep the pages turning. And who can resist a novel about a mobile library?”

– Booklist

"Billiant. Every page is filled with beautifully crafted sentences in a story replete with pathos and humor."

– Hannah Beckerman, Huffington Post

"Powerful, eccentric . . . Whitehouse’s writing is energetic and pacey, spiked with startling moments of tenderness and superbly controlled. Don’t wait for the inevitable film."

– The Times (London)

"Master storytelling, offering a love-letter to old-fashioned, happy-ever-after children’s novels . . . Remarkable . . . Whitehouse’s tragicomic book is absorbing to its end."

– Sunday Times (UK)

"A beautifully written ode to childhood innocence."

– Marie Claire

"The quirkiest plot we’ve seen for a while . . . making for a magical literary tour that evokes how the books we read as children inspire us. Heartwarming and heartbreaking in equal measure."

– Glamour

"Book lovers will be charmed by Mobile Library . . . It’s a funny coming-of-age tale."

– Good Housekeeping

"Whitehouse cleverly illustrates the way in which lives and books intertwine."

– Daily Mail

"A modern day fairytale . . . a plot that bounds along, dramatic event after dramatic event . . . hints of magic . . . It’s also fun . . . The message becomes clear: stories can save us, unite us, show us other ways of being, offer solace . . . as messages go, it’s a sound one, an example of the open-hearted warmth at the core of this book."

– Financial Times

"Full of heart and hope and absurd bravery, as three lost souls and Bert the dog run away from home in a stolen mobile library. They then set about creating their own kind of family and rewriting the stories of their lives . . . the writer’s charismatic, sparky tale of salvation and the stories within stories brilliantly shows how adventure can overtake and transform the most unlikely of people."

– Sunday Express

"An action packed tale of expanding horizons . . . engagingly offbeat powers of observation . . . the van becomes as much of a vehicle of fantasy as the Little Prince’s biplane or James’s giant peach – both a sanctuary from the outside world and a store of limitless possibilities . . . quietly profound . . . genuinely compelling."

– The Guardian