'A majestic Victorian tale... Wealthy lawyer Esmond, discarded illegitimate son of a peer, has pinched his way to the top of his profession, while his handsome, debt-ridden cavalry officer brother Clinton has inherited the title and the ancestral home. Beautiful actress Theresa, a widow, a fierce free spirit with a sinewy wit, is the woman both will love.' Kirkus Reviews'It is rare in this field to meet the realities of passion, its shifts and treacheries; when this combines with rich historical details, including recondite legal and financial ones, the result is outstanding.' Observer'The novel does imperatively make you want to know what happens next. Three cheers for narrative.' New Statesman'A superb novelistic situation, starkly worked out as it would be in real life... I was intensely concerned for the fortunes of these people.' Elizabeth Jenkins, Kaleidoscope (BBC)

In The Missionary's Wife (1996) - his return to historical fiction - Tim Jeal expertly evoked Africa in the 1890s: a continent in turmoil as a horde of prospecters, hunters and missionaries scramble after gold, ivory, and converts. Young Englishwoman Clara Musson, though, travels with a different purpose. Jilted in love, doubting her Christian faith, she hoped to find renewed meaning as the wife of charismatic missionary Robert Haslam. What she finds is an obsessive zeal that will provoke a civil war.'A powerful love story fleshed out with vivid historical detail, narrative tension and subtle post-colonial awareness... remarkably engaging and skilfully told.' Guardian'Jeal brilliantly evokes the sights and sounds and smells of 1890s Africa.' Sunday Times'Brilliantly plotted... a book of deep moral intelligence.' Lynn Barber, Literary Review'Gripping... moving and convincing.' Allan Massie, Scotsman

First published in 1976, Until the Colours Fade was Tim Jeal's fourth novel, set in 1852 in a Lancashire mill town transformed by the Industrial Revolution. Disenfranchised cotton workers are restless, while landed gentry make uneasy common cause with newly wealthy manufacturers. When painter Tom Strickland encounters the combustible Magnus Crawford, lately returned from military service abroad, he is drawn into a web of local hatreds and intrigues that will lead to an epic conclusion at the siege of Sebastopol.'First-rate - I was hooked from the first page... Jeal has a close sympathy for the passions and politics of Victorian Britain.' Times'A long, meaty, intelligent, historical novel, full of qualities like surprise, expectation and its fulfilment, dramatic description and real understanding of the physical enormities of old-style campaigns like the Crimea.' Financial Times'Jeal handles his ambitious range of...

Derek Cushing - thirtyish, balding, unassuming archivist/researcher into European expansion in East Africa - is also the son of Gilbert, father of Giles, and husband of Diana. On the last count, though, he has begun to fear that he is wearing cuckold's horns. His plan for addressing the crisis leads him to take his wife, son and ageing father to stay at the Cornish mansion of the smooth-talking gallery owner he believes to be his wife's lover. But this, at least, is a place where disputes may be brought to a head.First published in 1974, Cushing's Crusade was Tim Jeal's third novel, for which he won the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize.'Mr Jeal is a writer very much out of the ordinary, trenchant, elegant, subtle.' Sunday Telegraph'A charming, highly enjoyable and most accomplished novel.' Nina Bawden, Telegraph'Extremely funny, perceptive and moving.' Guardian

For Love or Money was Tim Jeal's first novel, accepted for publication in 1966 while he was still an undergraduate at Oxford. It is the story of temporary gentleman George, who lives as a kept man with Ruth, the older woman he stole from a wealthy peer, but whose relatively comfortable country life is threatened by his difficult relations with Ruth's two sons.'A first novel of genuine merit... Pointed and witty, with good dialogue and brisk backgrounds.' Evening Standard'A subtle five finger exercise... A beautifully complex and compassionate creation.' Francis King, Sunday Telegraph'Harshly uncompromising... The action screws together with an engineer's precision, but Tim Jeal's ability and insight give unity to the whole.' Sunday Times'Written in a style that is sophisticated and simple, acute and dogged... [Mr Jeal's] book really has no faults.' New Yorker

Ten years after Dinah deserted Harry to marry a friend of his, Harry still loves her obsessively, though his image of her has ceased to relate to her independent reality. Unable to shake this fixation Harry resolves, for the sake of his sanity, to get Dinah back.'Somewhere Beyond Reproach is Tim Jeal's highly readable and often amusing second novel... The writing is sensitive and perceptive.' Daily Telegraph'Jeal is a forceful yet urbane writer who takes perception far beyond the familiar level of perception. His first person narrative, cold and simple in its short sentences, is cleverly combined, in form and style, with an ingenious detachment.' Glasgow Herald'Jeal shows considerable powers of cool and accurate observation. His wine is dry and light and has a bouquet.' Punch'An intricate and absorbing novel.' Evening News

It is 1941. Only child Leo invites schoolfriend Justin to stay the summer on the western tip of Cornwall. Addicted to adventure tales, one night they swim out to investigate a supposed 'spy ship' moored off the coast. The outcome is unnerving for the boys but momentous for Leo's mother Andrea, bringing her into contact with Lieutenant Commander Mike Harrington.'Tim Jeal is a great storyteller... Deep Water is not only an extremely gripping novel, it is also thought-provoking and it subjects the conventional ideas about heroism, romantic love and adventure to a subtle yet searching examination.' Irish News'A very satisfying novel... brilliantly done.' Nina Bawden, The Oldie'Jeal brilliantly conveys a child's interpretation of the world... it is fascinating to watch a child taking revenge on his mother and her lover in such a dramatic fashion.' Times

Nothing obsessed explorers of the mid-nineteenth century more than the quest to discover the source of the White Nile. It was the planet's most elusive secret, the prize coveted above all others. Between 1856 and 1876, six larger-than-life men and one extraordinary woman accepted the challenge. Showing extreme courage and resilience, Richard Burton, John Hanning Speke, James Augustus Grant, Samuel Baker, Florence von Sass, David Livingstone, and Henry Morton Stanley risked their lives and reputations in the fierce competition. Award-winning author Tim Jeal deploys fascinating new research to provide a vivid tableau of the unmapped "Dark Continent," its jungle deprivations, and the courage—as well as malicious tactics—of the explorers.On multiple forays launched into east and central Africa, the travelers passed through almost impenetrable terrain and suffered the ravages of flesh-eating ulcers, paralysis, malaria, deep spear wounds, and even death. They discovered Lakes Tanganyika and Victoria and became the first white people to encounter the kingdoms of Buganda and Bunyoro. Jeal weaves the story with authentic new detail and examines the tragic unintended legacy of the Nile search that still casts a long shadow over the people of Uganda and Sudan.Review“Brilliant.”—New York Times Book Review(New York Times Book Review )“Explorers of the Nile is a brilliant, scholarly and at times almost unreadably vivid account of the two decades in the middle of the 19th century when the search for the Nile’s source in central Africa was at its height.”—Ben Macintyre, New York Times Book Review(Ben Macintyre New York Times Book Review )"Elegantly written and skillfully crafted...The greatest strengths of this highly enjoyable and readable book are Jeal’s passion for his subject and his mastery of personalities as complex as the geography they battled to understand."—Diane Preston, Washington Post (Diane Preston Washington Post )"Superb narrative . . . Jeal’s judicious account is a must-read for anyone hoping to understand the internal dynamics of modern state-building in central Africa."—Brian Odom, Booklist(Brian Odom Booklist )"Masterly...One of the fascinations of Jeal's book and his account of this astonishing period of exploration is that it makes great efforts to strip away the accumulated myths and through this process we can begin to see these 'heroic' figures plain, to imagine them as they were to their contemporaries."—William Boyd, TLS(William Boyd TLS )"Tim Jeal's masterly book ... can safely supplant Alan Moorehead's 1960 classic, The White Nile... Jeal also knows how to tell a fabulous story, and he lets old-fashioned epic adventure sit at the heart of his fine book." —James McConnachie, Sunday Times(James McConnachie Sunday Times )"[A] wonderfully entertaining and authoritative account of the search for the Nile and its consequences."—John Preston, Sunday Telegraph(John Preston Sunday Telegraph )Runner-up for the 2011-2012 Los Angeles Book Festival in the General Non-fiction category(General Non-Fiction Award Runner-up Los Angeles Book Festival )"There are few greater stories than the race to the Nile's source... Tim Jeal gives a fine reprise, bringing together in one well-paced narrative the interlocking Nilotic adventures ... Its place [is] alongside the classics of Victorian explorer history."—Tim Butcher, Daily Telegraph(Tim Butcher Daily Telegraph )"If there is one book about the search for the sources of the Nile to read and keep on the shelf, this is it."—Tim Severin, Irish Examiner(Tim Severin Irish Examiner )"Epic in proportion...An absorbing adventure and a thought provoking morality tale."—Peter Burton, Daily Express(Peter Burton Daily Express )"Tim Jeal's gripping book pulls the whole astonishing story together. . . . It's as intricate and unexpected as the source of the river itself. . . All the main players were. . . examples of grit, resourcefulness and courage on a heroic scale. . . . How intimately Tim Jeal knows them all, and brings them back to life for us."—Tom Stacey,  The Spectator(Tom Stacey The Spectator )"Masterly...The complicated narrative is well told with exemplary scholarship and great and compelling lucidity...One of the fascinations of Jeal's book and his account of this astonishing period of exploration is that it makes great efforts to strip away the accumulated myths and through this process we can begin to see these 'heroic' figures plain, to imagine them as they were to their contemporaries."—William Boyd, TLS(William Boyd TLS )Read Tim Jeal's essay on the perils of exploration on the Yale Press Log(http://yalepress.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/eminent-biography-tim-jeal-on-explorer )"Jeal's lengthy, comprehensive, and revisionist book is exciting reading both about the adventures in the field and about the clash of personalities."—Rob Hardy, The Dispatch (Rob Hardy The Dispatch )"Tim Jeal's wonderful book is filled with anecdotes and brilliant cameos, which keep the narrative fresh and sparklingly alive. His treatment of these legendary figures is authoritative and compassionate."—Alexander Maitland, Literary Review(Alexander Maitland Literary Review )"[A] wonderfully entertaining and authoritative account of the search for the Nile and its consequences...There is something intensely moving about the the way in which Jeal has sought to restore Speke's reputation."—John Preston, Sunday Telegraph(John Preston Sunday Telegraph )"Splendid."—Bernard Porter, Guardian(Guardian )Won Honorable Mention in the 2012 New York Book Festival History category, sponsored by the New York Book Festival(History Honorable Mention New York Book Festival 20120612) From the AuthorPraise for Tim Jeal’s Stanley, winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Biography"A magnificent new life. . . . There have been many biographies of Stanley, but Jeal's is the most felicitous, the best informed, the most complete and readable and exhaustive, profiting from his access to an immense new trove of Stanley material."—Paul Theroux, front page, New York Times Book Review"[An] impressive, revealing, and well written biography. . . . Tim Jeal has had both the good fortune to see [Stanley's] papers and the skill to construct a new interpretation around them. He recognizes Stanley's feats and views them in the context of his age rather than ours. Moreover, he adds new layers to his subject's character."—David Gilmour, New York Review of Books"[T]his commanding, definitive biography . . . is an unalloyed triumph."—Jason Roberts, Washington Post Book World“Sympathetic yet balanced, perceptive and full of perspective, this is biography at its best.”—Ross Leckie, The Times LondonNamed one of the 100 Notable Books of 2007 by the New York Times Book ReviewSelected as one of the best books of 2008 by the Washington PostNominated for the 2007 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Biography

Tim Jeal's sixth novel, first published in 1983, recreates the frenetic Britain of the 1960s and tells an enthralling tale of three individuals bound together by a risky experiment conducted amid the pop-cultural ferment of the era. Paul Carnforth is young, wealthy, titled, and alive to the opportunities of his times. 'You don't have to like pop to find it interesting', he tells his sceptical wife. Paul decides to fashion a pop star of his own - as a 'moral swipe', also proof of his individual brilliance. But the creation will soon threaten to outgrow his creator.'Pop music, working class heroes, record companies, music publishers and stately homes as settings for orgiastic settings, it's all here ... Mr Jeal writes comedy very well.' Irish Times'Tim Jeal is a writer very much out of the ordinary - trenchant, elegant, subtle.' Sunday Telegraph