“I enjoyed it enormously. The story is so interesting, the theme so important and pertinent, and the fluency and lightness of touch so engaging to read.” PHILIP PULLMAN

“A novel that probes any number of aggressive varieties of moralism, while testing the reader’s own moral alertness for rigour, realism and generosity. An engrossing, three-dimensional, grown-up narrative.” ROWAN WILLIAMS

“An irresistibly readable, thoughtful and characteristically witty examination of the quandaries and compromises faced by the Church of England in an era of decline . . . I loved this book for its lightness of touch about serious subjects and for dialogue that glitters like clashing rapiers.” MIRANDA SEYMOUR

As a woman in the early 1980s, Clarissa Phipps is unable to pursue her priestly vocation. Instead, she joins the BBC, where she is sent to interview the artist Seward Wemlock about the panels he is painting for an ancient Cheshire church.

“A serious and important writer” ROSE TREMAIN

Thirty years on, now rector of that same church, she chances upon Brian, the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest friend, fondling fifteen-year-old David. David claims they are in love, but Clarissa is obliged to act. Will she choose friendship or conscience, sympathy or her duty of care?

The fallout from that choice forces her to reflect on past concerns over Wemlock’s relationship with his teenage models. Had she heeded the whispers at the time, how many lives – her own included – would have turned out differently?

The Choice is a rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, questioning whether it’s possible, let alone prudent, to separate the art from the artist, which reaches to the heart of the contemporary culture wars. Richly comic and deeply compassionate, it is a remarkable synthesis of the sacred and profane.

“At a time when British fiction has never been more timorous about tackling novels of ideas, Michael Arditti has produced one worthy of Iris Murdoch and Graham Greene. Brilliantly ambiguous, waspishly witty and thoroughly enjoyable, this is Michael Arditti’s own masterpiece to date” AMANDA CRAIG

“I enjoyed it enormously. The story is so interesting, the theme so important and pertinent, and the fluency and lightness of touch so engaging to read” PHILIP PULLMAN

“[Arditti] has given us a novel very much for our time, good enough to be for all time, too” The Scotsman

“An engrossing, three-dimensional, grown-up narrative” ROWAN WILLIAMS

“The perfect combination of matters ecclesiastical and artistic” Financial Times

“Bursting with intellectual richness and joyously acidic dialogue” The Spectator

“A compelling read” Observer

” I loved this book for its lightness of touch about serious subjects and for dialogue that glitters like clashing rapiers” MIRANDA SEYMOUR

“An intelligent and entertaining novel that handles lightly problems of great moral weight” Guardian

As a woman in the early 1980s, Clarissa Phipps is unable to pursue her priestly vocation. Instead, she joins the BBC, where she is sent to interview the artist Seward Wemlock about the panels he is painting for an ancient Cheshire church.

“A serious and important writer” ROSE TREMAIN

“Arditti has delivered a complex moral fable with skill and aplomb” Mail on Sunday

Thirty years on, now rector of that same church, she chances upon Brian, the chief bell-ringer and husband of her closest friend, fondling fifteen-year-old David. David claims they are in love, but Clarissa is obliged to act. Will she choose friendship or conscience, sympathy or her duty of care?

The fallout from that choice forces her to reflect on past concerns over Wemlock’s relationship with his teenage models. Had she heeded the whispers at the time, how many lives – her own included – would have turned out differently?

The Choice is a rich and powerful exploration of desire, sin and redemption, questioning whether it’s possible, let alone prudent, to separate the art from the artist, which reaches to the heart of the contemporary culture wars. Richly comic and deeply compassionate, it is a remarkable synthesis of the sacred and profane.

“At a time when British fiction has never been more timorous about tackling novels of ideas, Michael Arditti has produced one worthy of Iris Murdoch and Graham Greene. Brilliantly ambiguous, waspishly witty and thoroughly enjoyable, this is Michael Arditti’s own masterpiece to date” AMANDA CRAIG

The Young Pretender takes place during Betty’s attempted comeback at the age of twenty-one. As he seeks to relaunch his career, he is forced to confront the painful truths behind his boyhood triumphs. Michael Arditti’s revelatory new novel puts this long forgotten figure back in the limelight. In addition to its rich and poignant portrait of Betty himself, it offers an engrossing insight into both the theatre and society of the age. The nature of celebrity, the power of publicity and the cult of youth are laid bare in a story that is more pertinent now than ever.

‘Michael Arditti is a writer who takes risks. His material is always compelling and provocative, his techniques sophisticated and oblique’ PATRICIA DUNCKER, Independent on Sunday

‘Arditti is a master storyteller’ PETER STANFORD, Observer