From the author of The Gustav Sonata

The bestselling and much-loved classic from Orange Prize-winning Rose Tremain, Restoration introduces us to the young Robert Merivel and his rise and fall through glittering seventeenth-century society. Shortlisted for the Booker prize it has been described as 'triumphant' (Sunday Telegraph) and 'dazzling' (New York Review of Books).


When a twist of fate delivers an ambitious young medical student to the court of King Charles II, he is suddenly thrust into a vibrant world of luxury and opulence. Blessed with a quick wit and sparkling charm, Robert Merivel rises quickly, soon finding favour with the King, and privileged with a position as `paper groom' to the youngest of the King's mistresses. But by falling in love with her, Merivel transgresses the one rule that will cast him out from his new-found paradise...

Over a million Rose Tremain books sold

`A writer of exceptional talent ... Tremain is a writer who understands every emotion' Independent I

`There are few writers out there with the dexterity or emotional intelligence to rival that of the great Rose Tremain' Irish Times

`Tremain has the painterly genius of an Old Master, and she uses it to stunning effect' The Times

`Rose Tremain is one of the very finest British novelists' Salman Rushdie

`Tremain is a writer of exemplary vision and particularity. The fictional world is rendered with extraordinary vividness' Marcel Theroux, Guardian