A very engaging writer with a remarkably broad frame of reference

...compelling and often witty insight into the customs and mindsets of overlooked corners of Britain ... Maconie is an engaging and illuminating guide throughout

As funny as Bryson and as wise as Orwell

More serious than you might expect, copies should be available in every school

Immensely touching ... [a] heartening gem of a book

The remarkable true story of a love affair between two Soviet citizens ... as much a literary challenge as a historical one: the book can be read as a non-fiction novel

Figes has achieved something extraordinary ... the gulag story lacks individuals for us to sympathise with: a Primo Levi, an Anne Frank or even an Oskar Schindler. Just Send Me Word may well be the book to change that ... the kind of love that most of us can only dream of

Remarkable ... Figes, selecting and then interpreting this mass of letters, makes them tell two kinds of story. The first is a uniquely detailed narrative of the gulag, of the callous, slatternly universe which consumed millions of lives ... The second is about two people determined not to lose each other

A quiet, moving and memorable account of life in a totalitarian state ... The book often reads like a novel ... captivating

Orlando Figes has wrought something beautiful from dark times

A heart-rending record of extraordinary human endurance

[A] remarkable tale of love and devotion during the worst years of the USSR ... [Figes's] fine narrative pacing enhances this moving, memorable story