“An excellent book: crisp and merciless yet funny and full of sympathy.” Dwight Garner, New York Times

“It’s easy to recommend this superb biography of the historian Hugh Trevor-Roper as one of the best books of the year…. Every page offers high-order literary entertainment…” Michael Dirda, Washington Post

“A marvellous evocation of man, place and time.” Norman Stone, Wall Street Journal

“An excellent biography, thorough and measured.” Anthony Grafton, New Republic

“Sisman’s narrative of this disaster proceeds in tick-tock style and with all of the suspense of a detective novel. The tale is hard to read without cringing, but impossible to put down.” Jeffrey Collins, New Criterion

“Superb . . . surpassed anything I read this year.” James McGuire, Irish Times