Gloriously entertaining

Nicky Haslam has known everyone from Greta Garbo to Cole Porter to the Royal Family, with many unforgettable eccentrics in between. But this is not a catalogue of celebrities. It is a truly felt, beautifully crafted , wise consideration of a full life, which paints an unforgettable picture of a vanished England and America. Masterpiece is an overused word, but this Proustian evocation is indeed a masterpiece

From the Mitfords to Warhol's Factory to Paris Hilton - Nicky Haslam has been at the centre of every glittering social circle in living memory... Haslam should be declared a National Treasure. While the nation's spirits are grievously low, Haslam brings joy and sprinkles magic dust of one sort or another wherever he goes

Redeeming Features is a tour de force romp through high society and the more glamorous chapters in the counterculture of the 20th century and the 21st...Haslam pops up from decade to decade alongside some of the most fascinating people in our cultural history

You could find yourself as Nicky Haslam's 'plus one' at the swellest parties with his delicious memoir

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

Aaronovitch aims to do more than expose popular nonsense

Forensically intelligent and hugely enjoyable study of modern conspiracy theories...consistently reasonable, persuasive and humane

Solid, well-researched and unexpectedly gripping

[Aaronovitch] is, broadly speaking, an enemy of conspiracy theories. He is also articulate, well versed in the facts and a good writer

Aaronovitch painstakingly dissects these and some of the other great conspiracy theories of the age and demonstrates with merciless clarity what utter tripe they are.

A serious, entertaining and shocking investigation into the stuff that conspiracy theories are made of. Aaronovitch guides us through the half-truths and speculation and examines the distrust of officialdom which fuels conspiracists' imagination.

In its many-layered discoveries, the book is truly magnetic