Albion

Hope breathes fresh thinking into the dusty corners and overgrown hedges of the English country house dilemma - without telling the reader what to think ... I closed Albion with a delicious sense of uncertainty * Sunday Times *
At once a sumptuous family drama and state-of-the-nation novel, it's a triumphant read * The i, best books out in May *
Albion is exquisitely put together, with a tight structure and richly drawn characters * Literary Review *
There are shades of both Succession and Saltburn at play here, with Albion promising more of the emotional acuity that Anna Hope wielded so well in 2019’s Expectation * Independent – The best books to look out for in 2025 *
A superb novel deftly woven around themes of class, national identity and environmental collapse. In Albion Anna Hope engages, head-on, with some of the most urgent and challenging issues facing the world today, and transforms them into spellbinding family drama * Jonathan Coe, author of Middle England *
Anna Hope’s beautiful new novel Albion explores the complexities of family, trauma, nature, human nature, landscape and escape in language that is as provocative as it is tender * Miranda Cowley Heller, author of The Paper Palace *
Her finest to date...With shades of Brideshead, as well as Elizabeth Jane Howard’s memorable Cazalet Chronicles, Albion is a welcome addition to the body of literature centred around inherited wealth, ancestral homes, and difficult family dynamics * John Boyne, Irish Times *
If you like dysfunctional families and grand English country houses - who doesn’t, frankly? people in idyllic settings having unenviable times is so compelling - then this is for you * India Knight, HOME substack *
The English country house novel re-imagined for our times: an exceptionally well-drawn portrait of a battling family, which also astutely wrestles with the issues around rewilding, inheritance, and colonialism * Claire Fuller, author of Unsettled Ground *
A book that asks important questions about legacy - familial, historical and global - and which seeks to answer them with delicate insight and beautiful prose * Elizabeth Day *
This book, its fascinating characters, steady paced plot and haunting prose will stay with you long after reading * Cosmopolitan, ‘The 25 books we can’t wait to read in 2025’ *
Wise and beautiful, with amazing nature writing to boot * India Knight, Sunday Times Style *
Anna Hope plunges us straight into the claustrophobic world of a family turned inside out by the death of the deeply flawed patriarch, and propels us towards a devastating conclusion. Compelling * Kirsty Wark *
A tour de force of a book. I love how Anna Hope weaves big ideas seamlessly into a compelling plot. It’s such a fine balance to strike and she does it so skilfully. * Roxy Dunn, author of As Young As This *
A compassionate, immersive novel that intelligently navigates historical pride and guilt, and the echo of history that resonates powerfully through the lives of Anna Hope’s compelling contemporary characters. Albion balances the reality of who the English were against the hope of who we might become * Richard Beard, author of The Day That Went Missing *