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Marks out of ten

Like a weary schoolmaster toiling over his pupils’ homework, Peter Kemp dispenses praise, encouragement or reproof to modern fiction’s big-hitters

5 August 2023

9:00 AM

5 August 2023

9:00 AM

Retroland: A Reader’s Guide to the Dazzling Diversity of Modern Fiction Peter Kemp

Yale University Press, pp.320, 20

It is very possible that Peter Kemp is the best-read man in Britain. Certainly, as the Sunday Times’s chief literary critic for goodness knows how many years, he has read and opined upon more works of new fiction than most. His is either a dream job or an absolute nightmare, depending on how you feel about the state of the novel.

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