I've read no better novel in years. It's intimate and enormous, of its time and timeless, in the way great novels are. I think it has the makings of a classic

Samantha Harvey, author of the Booker Prize-winning Orbital

Perfectly captures the long hot summer of 1976 from a child's eye view. Evocative, resonant, and quite simply, brilliant

CLAIRE FULLER

An evocation of a seventies English childhood that's so intense, so immediate, that you can almost taste the sticky orange squash on your tongue. Trouble Was is disturbing and heartbreaking in equal measure

Hari Kunzru

Vivid, involving, full of feeling and acutely observed moments

Edward Docx

Gripping ... An unforgettable account of a child struggling to understand the dysfunctionality of the grown ups around him, trying to make sense of an impenetrably complex adult world. Edwardes' clear, sharp writing transports you to the past so powerfully that you can smell the 1970s. I loved it

Amelia Gentleman

Trouble Was gives us childhood with breath-taking precision - the shifting loyalties and life-altering betrayals (big and small), the fog of an adult world illuminated by a child's uncanny insight, the unbearably steadfast love children have for their often unlovable parents. One of the most beautiful, and heart-rending, books I've read in a long time

Krystelle Bamford