"In short, war is as transformative for those who remain at home as for those who fight it, and historian Tillyard, making her fiction debut, does a superb job of portraying those transformations with deft, economical prose and metaphors that are as instructive as they are descriptive. This sophisticated, unusual portrait of Regency society will appeal to all readers of historical fiction, especially admirers of Bernard Cornwell."—Library Journal, Starred Review
"Tillyard is at her best with historical figures and when depicting the era; readers share Harriet's discovery of the waltz, Jane Austen, and ice cream, and witness cutting-edge battlefield surgeries under real-life Surgeon Gen. James McGrigor."—Publishers Weekly
"Dazzling—I love this book. It's beautifully written, the characters are deeply involving and the historical settings so right—in short, Tides of War is a triumph."—Simon Schama
"Stella Tillyard is famous for the bravura of her writing, so it should come as no surprise that her fifth book is not a biography but a historical novel… The result suggests that history's loss will be fiction's gain; Tides of War is one of the most assured literary debuts in years… Stella Tillyard has written a modern novel that is the perfect answer to anyone who believes that the past is out of date."—Amanda Foreman, Financial Times
"A remarkably instructive novel. Tillyard embellishes a plot too intricate for summary with a plethora of detail. Readers…will find much to fascinate them... Tillyard is a fluent and attractive chronicler of historical detail and some of her imaginative liberties are ingenious… An entertaining fictional debut."—The Telegraph (UK)
"Hugely enjoyable… In its intelligent, classy, entertaining way, the book is reminiscent of that other fine novelist of the Napoleonic wars, Patrick O'Brian."—Angus Clarke, The Times (UK)
"Love, betrayal, war and peace charge this powerful debut."—Fanny Blake, Woman and Home (UK)
"This novel is packed with marvelous period detail… Tillyard writes in fluid, largely understated prose, and her descriptions are wonderful."—Lucy Atkins, The Sunday Times (UK)
"Seldom, since reading Jane Austen, have I wanted to slip between the pages of a book and become one of its characters. But in Tides of War, Stella Tillyard’s first novel, the clever, messy heroine who prefers chemistry to needlework filled me with roughly the same longing I felt when reading Emma as a teenager…. With Tides of War, she makes fiction as real as history and considerably more compelling."—Lucy Kellaway, Financial Times
