This is a magnificent achievement

Erudite and eloquent

Kurlansky writes history with his heart firmly on his sleeve, unashamedly hopeful that people are becoming more tired of war, quicker to condemn it

Short and punchy and has a good heart... fascinating, vibrant and thought-provoking

This book is crammed with historical fact... thought provoking

Delightful

Succinct yet wide-ranging...Kurlansky is adamant that his book is about hope, that over and over again non-violence has had its own small successes, from Gandhi to Martin Luther King

The ideal Christmas present for world leaders and jihad warriors everywhere

Kurlansky tells an intriguing story - with some nuggets of fascinating trivia

An entertaining, interesting and sometimes inspiring gallop through parts of the history of non-violent conflict

Invariably exciting and immensely enjoyable… Ackroyd coruscates with ideas and fancies…the total effect is spectacular and vastly stimulating. "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life." The same could be said with equal justice of any reader who finds no pleasure or instruction in Ackroyd’s book

Mammoth…beguiling…intriguing…vivid…engrossing

Truly, he has written London’s biography. I began rereading it as soon as I finished, and I urge you to read it as soon as possible, so that you can begin rereading it as well

A fat and filling feast: pretty much everything of interest about the capital is crammed into the eight-hundred pages. One cannot but marvel at Ackroyd’s erudition, his energy in marshalling minutiae, his ear for quotation, his flair for dazzling juxtapositions, his vibrant imagination and sheer exuberance

An erudite labour of love, a fan-letter to a fabulous city, and a book one suspects Ackroyd was destined to write. It illuminates the English character, and is darkly humorous in its detail, tumbling through centuries crowded with legendary events and eccentric observations, as exuberant, energetic and alarming as the city itself

A masterpiece

Spellbinding

A sharp, beautifully written but above all truthful account of London…This is the kind of writing that gives intellectuals a good name