Peter Ackroyd is the greatest living chronicler of London

Peter Ackroyd was born to write the biography of London...a brilliant book

It would be no exaggeration to say that Peter Ackroyd's 'biography' of our captial is the book about London

You will not find a better, more visionary book about a place we take for granted

[London] may be several years old but it remains one of the leading narratives as he cleverly weaves through centuries of history to reveal to us the hundreds of different cities within a city.

In this outstanding biography of the capital Peter Ackroyd brings the streets alive with tales young and old.

The definitive history of London... a must read for anyone interested in the subject.

It's this decade's finest work of non-fiction.

A fantastically detailed book

This superlative study opens the door on the cruelty of the quacks who locked up lost souls

Several riveting cases Sarah Wise has unearthed for this fine social history of contested lunacy in the 19th century... Wise has given us a fascinating book that teems with rich archival research. The pictorial sources are an added boon and make for a wonderfully illustrated addition to the history of the 19th century

Rich, gripping and moving mix of social history, psychiatry and storytelling

A dark and disturbing investigation...trenchant and disturbing book

There is so much to interest and entertain in this book, which is enhanced by over eighty informative illustrations

A wonderfully engaging book

Fascinating book (4 stars)

Wise reopens 12 uncontested lunacy cases from the 1800s, meticulously exploring the details of each and recreating the stories with a page-turning eye for a great narrative

Sarah Wise knows how to grab the reader’s attention with phrases that would have done Bulwer-Lytton proud. But the book’s readability does not disguise its scholarship. This is a valuable contribution to our understanding of nineteenth-century

I thrilled to Sarah Wise’s Inconvenient People, an enthralling study of those who fell foul of Victorian mad-doctors and greedy relatives

It makes for a harrowing read, but much of it is also hilarious, and as gripping as the most lurid Victorian melodramatic novel. Yet again, one closes a book with the impression that beneath the polished mahogany surfaces and shimmering silks of Victorian interiors lurked Hell itself