Books

‘May has a nose for historical curiosities … good at capturing the cynical mood of the 1920s, the world of flappers and traumatised veterans and corrupt swells … Clever and playful’ – Robbie Millen, The Times

‘May skilfully orchestrates a large cast of both historical and fictional characters … the novel’s period detail is impeccable … One of its chief pleasures is the authorial voice, which, with its maxims on pity, ambition, boredom and so forth, is of an omniscience rarely encountered in contemporary fiction’ – Financial Times

‘An idiosyncratic, rather dreamlike novel: it doesn’t so much bring history to life as use a clutch of historical figures to showcase the author’s own captivatingly offbeat intelligence’ – Jake Kerridge, The Telegraph

‘May has found his forte speculating on the ‘what ifs’ of history. That he imbues his story with a rallying call for feminism and neatly solves the mystery surrounding the narrator only further increases my admiration for this very fine and fun novel’ – Susie Mesure, The Spectator

‘Striking and entertaining, with something joyful on every page … this is a novel that uses history as its springboard … prose is sharp and bright, with a nice aphoristic quality that makes each page seem nutritious. Green Ink is a grand, provocative entertainment’ – John Self, The Critic

‘Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events, which he then gives the fictional treatment’ – The Times Books to Look Out For In 2025

‘Intrigue, betrayal, redemption – a glimpse behind the political scenes of a bygone British era that feels very contemporary’ – Rachel Seiffert

‘Green Ink is a wonderful confection – with obvious echoes today – and has a prose style as nimble as a maître d at rush hour’ – Crack Magazine, Book of the Month

Praise for Sell Us the Rope

‘Original, adept and confident… What can I say, except that I wish I had written it myself?’ Hilary Mantel

‘A deeply satisfying novel. Incisive, inventive, frequently very funny’ Guardian

‘Historical facts furnish May with a cast of legends to bring to life, and he does it with verve and humour’ The Times

‘Brilliant and original — part historical novel, part romantic comedy, and part bildungsroman about a tyrant-in-waiting’ Marcel Theroux

‘A captivating thought-experiment that marks a consolidation of May’s powers as a writer’ Daily Telegraph