...this work paints a compelling portrait of a superpower sending its best men to die largely just to prove no challenge was beyond the English. ...scholarly, passionate text...

Brandt, the author of two previous historical books and a seasoned writer of magazine articles, draws on a rich vein of fact and fiction.

Exhaustive, elegant history.

Anthony Brandt, in this excellent book, sets out to give us the whole history of the search for the North-West Passage...The Man Who Ate His Boots gives a surprisingly deep insight into the soul of imperial Victorian Britain. Like shoe leather, there's plenty here to chew over.

Tracy Borman handles her voluminous material with easy grace

In recent years the British Empire has been the subject of fresh scrutiny... Now Piers Brendon brings his own sharp eye to the debate... This he does superbly: with brio and panache and, often, a mordant wit...This is a real achievement and an important one

The conquest of one quarter of the world's surface was, as Piers Brendon shows in disturbingly entertaining fashion, a story of massacre, famine, rape, torture and loot on a grand scale....Brendon with an acute eye for detail and the tragic-comic bon mot, serves up a veritable gorefest in which all sides slake their lusts

Both entertaining and informative, Beastly Fury is an impeccably researched book telling an enthralling story in an easily read fluent style

Fascinating stuff

Shows that publishers continue to believe in a market for the thinking person's football book... a good historical read

A fine book... well-researched and superbly written

This original thesis, written with style, wit and authority, explains how the beastly game became more beautiful.

Delightful... a valuable work of social history

I have read many a prime ministerial memoir and none of the other authors has been as self-deprecating, as willing to admit mistakes and to tell jokes against themselves

Paints a candid picture of his friend and rival, Gordon Brown, and of their relationship