Merivel A Man of His Time

Get ready to laugh, prepare to weep -- Robert Merivel is back in Rose Tremain's magical sequel to Restoration.

Robert Merivel, courtier to Charles II is no longer a young man -- but off he goes to France in search of the Sun King and to Switzerland in pursuit of a handsome woman. Versailles -- all glitter in front and squalor behind -- is a fiasco: Merivel is forced to share an attic (and a chamber pot) with a Dutch clock-maker while attempting to sustain himself on peas and jam and water from the fountains. Switzerland, by contrast, is perhaps a little too comfortable. But the lady, a clever botanist, leads Merivel deliciously on -- until her jealous husband bursts in with duelling pistols.

As he narrates the picaresque journey, Merivel gets into all sorts of scrapes; he is torn between enjoying himself and making something of his life, through medicine and the study of science. He tries to be diligent, but constantly backslides into laugher and laziness. A big-hearted rogue who loves his daughter, his country house and the English King... Merivel is Everyman -- and he speaks directly to us down the centuries.

ROSE TREMAIN's bestselling novels have been published in 27 countries and have won many prizes, including the Orange Prize (The Road Home and -- shortlisted -- The Colour), the Whitbread Novel of the Year Award (Music and Silence) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize and Prix Femina Etranger (Sacred Country). She is also the author of award-winning short stories and TV plays. Rose Tremain lives in Norfolk and London with the biographer, Richard Holmes.