Cool, sobering and often bizarre

one of the best... a brave book - Fergusson is prepared to probe beyond the cliche

Crystal-clear writing and first-rate analysis...devastating... this is a stunning book. Meticulously researched and deeply thoughtful, it is explanatory journalism at its best.

...a brave and nuanced re-evaluation of the Taliban

Elegant... Interweaving psychogeographical investigation with history, picking out defining characteristics which were present from its earliest days

Peter Ackroyd has the gift of transmuting other men's sober research into the golden sentences that make his books on men and cities so irresistible, entrancing, occasionally weird but undeniably grand...Ackroyd...has turned their diligence into effulgent, mesmeric, satisfying prose

Combative, omnivorous and beady-eyed as ever, the author has no trouble in persuading us, nonetheless, that the 'pure city' is not quite ready to collapse into its primal mud

It is all here, in Ackroyd's dense and articulate prose. He writes in short, sharp sentences, firing out facts with machine-gun speed. He pulls the reader through the city's winding calli on a vivid, frenzied journey of discovery. It is an ever-shifting scenery of stern-faced Dogi, secretive statesman, canny merchants, thieve, whores, artists, geniuses: all jostling for favour in Ackroyd's city of intrigue.... Highly evocative...he writes beautifully and succinctly

Ackroyd takes an erudite and entertaining look at the city of doges, gondolas, carnival masks and canals

Ackroyd has managed... to give us a beautifully crafted, ruminative, well-illustrated, and utterly readable volume...vibrant and evocative

Elegant and erudite

Ackroyd's view of Venice is not that of an infatuated lover... but more the magisterial distillation of much knowledge and reading, conveyed in prose that aspires to the glassy elegance of La Serenissima herself

Opulent, shimmering prose

Ackroyd does Venice, his sonorous, scene painting prose advancing in rhythmic columns until no quarter of the city has escaped assimilation.

Ackroyd's achievement is to bring the city back to life and help you to experience differently. Take it with you next time you visit.

His dark tapestry ... deserves a place in every visitor's luggage

Ackroyd writes about Venice as an idea, with stylish meditations on such topics as time, light, water, sexuality, politics and psychopathology...he writes so well that at times he'd drive you mad - "Venice represented an idea that was itself eternal" - but if you just climb into his gondola and go where he takes you, the rewards are great indeed

Many books have been written about Venice by authors like Mary McCarthy and Jan Morris. Ackroyd's advantage is his poetic eye

Ackroyd writes beguilingly as he weaves his way around the lagoon, supplying interesting details en route...