Entertaining…compellingly vivid... A fine examination of both the bizarre and the banal in the domestic machinery of Victoria's court

The rhythm of court life at Windsor or Balmoral is the backdrop to a rich human drama... [Hubbard's] achievement is to enter a sealed world, ruled by repetition, and make it compelling

Eye-opening and compelling

Having plundered a rich vein of fascinating and often new information, Hubbard shows that serving Victoria was no doddle

An astonishing, lively and amusing account of the opinionated Queen and her odd entourage

Finely tuned… Hubbard integrates these strands of personnel and personalities through her small group of histories, which she records so skillfully that the excellence of her prose and the lucidity of her insight are taken for granted

Mason may have made himself the Bill Bryson of our capital city

I was charmed by the book's profusion of insightful anecdotes and fascinating trivia

Maconie’s history of modern Britain filtered through pop songs is a fine example of a perfect marriage: Vera Lynn’s We’ll Meet Again conjures up the British wartime resilience while The Strawbs’ Part of the Union sums up the bitter industrial conflict that defined the 1970s

Beautifully crafted and scrupulously researched… The Zhivago Affair is a prime example of hard work and fidelity to a good story

As gripping as any spy thriller

Fascinating...With a delightful eye for detail

Finn and Couvée deal objectively with the characters involved and tell the story with exceptional vivacity

A thrilling literary espionage yarn...sheds new light on the Cold War struggle for the hearts and minds of millions of people

A fascinating tale that sheds new light on the literary front of the Cold War

High dudgeon, high stakes, high art

A wonderful book

A fast-paced political thriller about a book that terrified a nation

Brisk and thrilling...expertly told...a triumphant reminder that truth is sometimes gloriously stranger than fiction

Groundbreaking reporting and character-rich storytelling... Passionately written...almost makes one nostalgic for a time when novels were so important that even the CIA cared about them

A sparkling and fascinating account

Well-paced narrative...of great relevance today, when such conflicts seem (but only seem) to have disappeared.

Immensely compelling

Meticulously researched

The true strength of this meticulously researched book is the placing of the revelations into the context of a compelling human drama

Engrossing

[An] outstanding treasure of literature

Impeccably researched, and moving, this book breaks new ground