«An impressively cogent book... For a writer so fascinated by conflict, Parks is a model of critical reason and clarity»

New Statesman

«Tim Parks is a master of the essay... Park's polymath pursuits here focus primarily - and bravely - on heavyweight novelists and on almost every historical, political and cultural aspect of his adoptive homeland, Italy»

Independent

«Always erudite but never forbidding, bringing an unashamedly humanist consciousness to the lives and works under consideration... Thought-provoking and often funny»

Observer

«His writing is muscular but there is not street-bawling for the sake of it... He is much subtler, more perceptive than that»

Guardian

«Parks proves sharp in both defence and attack in these essays»

Financial Times