This profound study by Roderick Bailey goes a long way to identifying the common characteristics of the bravest of the brave ... Here is a testament to what is good about humankind against the backdrop of what can be the worst. The abiding thought with which the reader is left is one of hope; that adversity can indeed bring out the best in us. These "Forgotten Voices" are eloquent in proclaiming this enduring truth

A significant and important book ... Over the last 45 years I have read hundreds of VC books but this volume has a unique place because of the "voices" of the VCs themselves ... Highly recommended and should be read by anyone with an interest in the VC

He is a journalist of ideas on a very high level - the kind we lack and need in this country - who functions midway between the realms of art and of society, but whose function is indispensable, if thought is to be part of culture

Perhaps the most remarkable autobiography since the confessions of Rousseau

A tumultuous rollercoaster of a book ... Mr Parker tells an extraordinary, neglected and shameful history with gusto

Parker's descriptions of West Indian life are not only beautifully crafted but full of surprises. What's more, his accounts of tropical combat are utterly compelling. As a portrait of the heat, horror and vanity of that time, The Sugar Barons is surely without equal

Parker's epic story, from the 19th century to the present day, is awesome

An epic tale of human folly and endeavour, beautifully told and researched

Alternately excoriating and scintillating, Parker's account blends an analysis of how slavery deformed Britain's early empire with narratives worthy of Conrad. It is a tale peopled by terrifying grotesques: captains of industry whose initiative, swagger and fortitude were more than matched by the monstrous scale of their crimes.

Fabulously researched, the diary entries, letters and papers reveal a staggering level of corruption and cruelty . . . He constructs, piece by piece, what amounts to a compelling prosecution of the slavery and Imperial greed that left a shocking legacy in the region

Racy, well-researched history . . . The Sugar Barons provides eloquent testimony to the mercantile greed of a few and manifest misery endured by millions in the pursuit of sweetness

Required reading for anyone interested in history ... timely and thrillingly told

A meticulously researched project which took me back to my own childhood

Steve Roud's magisterial The Lore of the Playground takes us deeper in to a collective experience