A wonderful book, absolutely in tune with the le Carré canon. I cannot think of a more compelling read.

Gandhi's finest biographer.

Magisterial . . . balanced and brilliantly readable . . . This biography reads like the final word on its subject. . . . In fact, this masterly assessment should serve for several generations, and for non-Indians as well

Ramachandra Guha is as dogged a researcher as Gandhi was an agitator. . . . [This book] is the most exhaustive account yet of Gandhi's temporal and spiritual crusades. A vivid and absorbing read. . . . Gandhi's character and mission demands rigorous exploration and Guha weaves together the narrative as deftly as Gandhi's homespun cloth. . . . A remarkable, pioneering leader who changed the world and still has much to teach us ... a monumental biography

Unearths fascinating nuggets about India's complex hero ... Guha has scoured archives to search out fascinating nuggets and he marshals them with skill.

A thoroughly researched and well-written account and a faithful chronicle

Deeply affecting

Ramachandra Guha's magisterial biography illuminates the public and private man

A portrait of a complex man whose remarkable tenacity remained constant, even when his beliefs changed. It is also extraordinarily intimate ... approaches Gandhi on his own terms while trying not to gloss over his flaws ... a fair, thorough and nuanced portrait of the man. Gandhi spoke for himself more than most people in history, but even the most controlling people cannot control how history sees them. Guha lets Gandhi appear on his own terms, and allows him to reveal himself in all his contradictions.

Through Gandhi's life, a reminder that we have forgotten the value of religious pluralism and the virtues of non-violence he wants to narrate Gandhi's life for today's generation. It is a courageous and worthwhile endeavour, even if Guha admits in the epilogue that we have forgotten the lessons Gandhi taught us: the value of religious pluralism, and the virtues of non-violence and civil disobedience. Guha is the quintessential story teller. He displaces Gandhi from the pedestal generations have placed him on. He shows us a man who was known for taking political time by the forelock, for shaping history, and for his readiness to admit his own mistakes.

Witty, gossipy and erudite, Julian Barnes brilliantly tells the story of an era through the eyes of a man who knew the writers, thinkers, aristocrats and actors of the day.

Marvellously rich and thought-provoking.

I was enchanted by Julian Barnes’s splendid tour d’horizon of belle époque society, of its art and literature. His book (The Man in the Red Coat) brought back memories of authors read long ago and and opened up promises of paths yet to be explored.

Barnes is an urbane and cultured guide, weaving his commentary on art, literature and philosophy into a fluid narrative while exposing the seams of a society preoccupied with reputation to a deadly degree… This is the story of an era so dizzying and fantastical that it seems like fiction, even in Barnes’ impeccably researched retelling.

[In] this beguiling hybrid of a book…[Barnes] knit[s] his patchwork of stories together with all the suturing skill of Dr Pozzi, that fast-fingered virtuoso of the catgut or silver-wire stitch… [A] richly textured portrait of Pozzi and his friends.

Barnes shapes...rich material into a compelling tale of collaborations, innovation and excess.

[Barnes] liberates us from the shallowness of our absorption in the present, and reminds us that we always know less than we think about what we’re doing.

Barnes is as freewheeling in his painting of a hedonistic period as Pozzi was free-thinking - and presents it as a mirror to our own "hysterical" age.

[The Man in the Red Coat is] top international tittle-tattle… sparkling and very enjoyable.

[A] richly illustrated, witty and detailed tour d’horizon of the belle époque period… Julian Barnes conveys all the joie de vivre and the decadence of the period as well as the rich array of intellectual and artistic life shared between France and Britain… a book that should fascinate many a Francophile.

Timely stuff.

An intricate biographical essay.

[A] richly entertaining study.

A masterful portrayal of the Belle Epoque.

A personal meditation on the belle époque… The Man in the Red Coat is one long, meandering essay in Montaigne mode.

The book is at once a biography of Pozzi in the context of his time and a picture of the time as refracted by Pozzi. Barnes constructs it as a kind of mosaic.

Elegant and resonant.

I’ve just started Julian Barnes’s The Man in the Red Coat, and I am already hooked.

A tour de force… Dr Pozzi may not be remembered in medical history but his legacy is an artwork of himself in his prime that has transcended time.

Steeped in the luxury and scandal of Belle Epoque Paris and London, Barnes resurrects the charming, philandering Pozzi.