There's a sadness to Merivel's life as he recalls his glory days. Also lacking is Merivel's moral sidekick from Restoration, the Quaker Pearce, although his voice is still much in Merivel's mind. Instead we get the end of the King's reign and Merivel at a loss to find his purpose in live. What Merivel lacks in comparison with Restoration is the mirroring of personal events with political times, when Merivel's fortunes and favour with Charles are restored in just the same way as the King is restored to the throne of England. His behaviour is often selfish and disreputable, but he has a warm heart beneath his rolls of corpulence and he's hard not to love. A Falstaff-type character, he is self-depreciating and has an uncanny ability to attract and usually overcome disaster. Merivel, to the uninitiated, is a physician and courtier to King Charles II. Although while plot development is part of the joy of the books, the main joy is the characterization of Merivel himself. This means that you don't strictly have to have read Restoration first, and it reveals some light spoilers to the plot if you read them out of order. The ideal preparation for this book is probably that you have read Restoration but forgotten some of the detail, as Tremain recaps events and Merivel's narration refers to events of the past and to his writing of the first book. Thankfully, this is one of those rare things in literature a very good follow up. For those, like me, who loved Restoration at the time, the memory of its central character has grown in fondness over time while some of the detail has been inevitably lost to memory. Leaving a follow up so long can be fraught with danger.

Almost as much time has passed in Merivel's world with the book opening in 1683. Rose Tremain has made fans of her 1989 book Restoration wait for a long time before picking up the story of Sir Robert Merivel. Character-driven historic fiction at its best. Sir Robert Merivel remains as charismatic and lovable as ever - a Falstaff for the King Charles II era - balancing hope and sadness as the disasters keep coming. Summary: It has been a long wait for a follow up to 'Restoration'.

Restoration rose tremain review