[A] remarkable tale...drawing chilling parallels to the inequalities of our time... A book that is both a heartfelt outpouring of pity and sorrow and an irate demand for restitution... Oh Happy Day deserves to be called Dickensian.

Fascinating... [Oh Happy Day] evokes echoes of the present in speaking about the past, as all great works of history do. It's a gripping narrative.

Oh Happy Day gives a voice to the voiceless and adds another major work to Carmen Callil's formidable achievements.

Oh Happy Day is a phenomenal achievement... The book covers great swathes of history... These are intriguing stories.

An absorbing account of empire, migration, the poverty of injustice and enduring love... The book bristles with Callil's righteous anger at the injustices meted out to her forbears, and at the parallels for our own times.

An extraordinary reclamation of lives usually lost to history... A model of how to construct a compelling narrative from patchy material... Other writers, from Dickens onwards, have exposed these hardships: few have done so with the rigour and bitter irony that Callil employs.

Powerfully told... [Oh Happy Day is] an impressive work, shining merciless beams of light on murky specifics of the early 1800s... She's such a forceful writer.

Callil speaks in the vehement voice of a furious warrior, adversary and advocate. She deftly wields a mighty weapon of words as she puts the case for the dispossessed of the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries... From her research, Callil can conjure jewels that light the scene, astonish and delight. Or maybe horrify... The construction of the narrative is a masterpiece of beguiling tessellation... This is a book to be read slowly, reread, treasured.

[A] stirring and intelligent second book... Oh Happy Day brings a veritable mine of information. Whether she's detailing the rise of the Chartists, the daily grind of the stockinger families, the horrors of the prison hulks, or ruminating on Britain's obsession with flagellation, Callil certainly knows her stuff.

Thought-provoking.

[A] poignant mixture of the personal and the political... a stirring, opinionated account.

The power of government is crucial for driving the economy forward. But only if it retains capacity. Mazzucato and Collington have written a brilliant book that exposes the dangerous consequences of outsourcing state capacity to the consulting industry-and how to build it back. A fascinating look at the biggest players in the game and why this matters for all of us.

A powerful indictment of a dubious industry. This book should be read around the globe, and kickstart a debate that's long overdue: Do we really need all those consultants?

The Big Con documents, in precise detail and with panoramic vision, all the ways that the consulting industry has insinuated itself into the systems that govern and control our lives. Private companies, public charities and trusts, states, and even the international order have all handed mission-critical functions over to management consultants. Mariana Mazzucato and Rosie Collington document the harms that result, as consultants exploit the public while stripping their clients of expertise and even the capacity to learn. This bill of particulars serves a profound master purpose: to demonstrate that we cannot outsource governance over our lives and still hope to remain prosperous, democratic, and free.

A management consultant,' the quip runs, 'is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time-and then keeps the watch.' This is the very least of the confidence tricks perpetrated by the global consulting industry it turns out. Another common saying is that 'nobody ever got fired for hiring McKinsey.' With the publication of The Big Con, they just might.

Doggedly researched and elegantly written, this is a fascinating entry point into a critical yet underreported issue

Fascinating... a real page-turner... the writing is backed up with considerable academic research... the evidence of systematic oppression, presented as powerfully and relentlessly as it is here, will be difficult to resist

Not so much a history book as a book of historical significance

Hugely entertaining

Fascinating