Many of the characters appear in the novel, including John Hawkins, James Woodhouse, Anna Williams, Robert Levet, Frank Barber, John Delap, Fanny Burney, Davy Garrick, Bennet Langton, Frances Reynolds, Giuseppe Baretti, Oliver Goldsmith, Joshua Reynolds and James Boswell.

The tension between the bizarre manners of the day and the unexpressed passions burning within is beautifully caught, and Queeney's skeptical commentary lends just the right distance.

'[4] Adam Sisman writing in The Observer praises Bainbridge: 'The result is that many of the incidents she describes are known to have happened, and many of the words she puts in to Johnson's mouth are those he is reported to have said.

Bainbridge's spare prose is perfectly suited to her purpose, conveying an immediate sense of experience, in the muddle and intensity of the present.

'[5] John Mullan in The Guardian has some weaknesses about the novel: 'There are shards of real letters, quotations from Boswell and from Mrs Thrale's own diary (her Thraliana), fragments of Fanny Burney's journals and of Johnson's own writings.