The narrative is part Peter Carey, part Gothic novel, with plenty of drunkeness, torture,villainy and cannibalism to be aghast at. A fine travel book too

A fabulous read

An excellent portrait of aunique island

Superb

Shakespeare excels at providing psychological insights. An intimate and revealing work only a truly gifted writer could have produced

Society gossip galore by the gadfly's gadfly

This really rather wonderful book is about a life devoted to "Looking the part"

This is a wonderfully entertaining memoir, gossipy, touching and tender, even if at times it verges on self-parody. This book is suffused with his irrepressible joie de vivre and is never less than entertaining

Haslam writes evocatively and touchingly

The high priest of wit, hilarity and name-dropping...but apart from all of the names - the names! - the joy of this book comes from Nicky's undying joie de vivre

Haslam is an intriguing man...[and] can write wonderfully well

A baroque soufflé of names, faces, bitchy asides and put-downs, sprinkled with funny anecdotes.

Though full of as much gossip as you might expect from the inveterate socialite, this memoir is also interestingly clever

The interior designer, journalist and socialite Nicky Haslam has met almost everyone who's anyone

It is...boisterously good company and proof that if Haslam knows one thing, it's that you can only get away with a life like his if you are never, ever boring.

a terrifically entertaining read

extremely diverting, essentially kind-hearted and well written