A great achievement ... There could hardly be a more judicious guide to this bloody terrain ... a stark lesson in man's capacity for evil

A triumph ... one of a tiny handful of historians whose books will still be read in 100 years

Chilling epic-size history ... should be required reading

The story of how the Old World plunged toward hell for 30 years ... There is no man better qualified than Kershaw to take us through the dark valleys of the world wars and the two sombre intervening decades ... fair-minded, deeply researched and highly readable

We are in the hands of a master historian

Few authors would have the ability, and perhaps the determination, to take on the history of both world wars and the connecting decades at this level of sophistication, depth and breadth

Authoritative

Kershaw leads his readers through this complex history in a clear and compelling manner

It would be hard to write an original and moving account of the tortured twentieth-century history of Germany. But, in The House by the Lake, Thomas Harding succeeds remarkably... a tragic and beautifully told history.

An unusual, evocative and moving account of modern Germany...The book succeeds remarkably, in providing a fresh and original insight into the twin totalitarian systems that disfigured Germany in the twentieth century.

A fascinating and revealing account of a century of German social and political history, told in an effortlessly accessible way.

This revelatory and compelling book is a clear must-read for anyone interested in German history during the past tumultuous century. The House By The Lake is a deeply moving story of endurance – of place as well as people. It is also uplifting as we learn of how the crumbling wreck of the house is restored to a haven of reconciliation and peace for the community and visitors to enjoy, and to heed its history which has been so brilliantly exposed.

[A] personal yet historically wide ranging account…it is Harding’s great achievement that he has painted a large canvas of history, but has done so with glinting individual stories. He has persevered in listening to those ‘quiet voices'.

This emblem of tyranny [the Berlin Wall] was just another fact of life for those living in its shadow. And that is, perhaps, the most important lesson of Harding’s book. History, which we learn about as a series of ideological abstractions, is lived concretely. This is why an ordinary house can serve so effectively as a symbol of the German experience.

An admirably clear and concise history of modern Germany. It’s an impressive feat of archival and investigative research. Fascinating revelations abound…[A] powerful book.

A gentle but rewarding book, carefully tuned into the marginal voices recorded in the history of one small house by a lake... often poignant, sometimes heartening, and never other than intimate.

A fascinating window on a tumultuous period.

Impressive... a deft history.

With the narrative drive of a great novelist and the meticulous research of a great historian, Harding has crafted a moving, instructive and very important book.

It would be hard to write an original and moving account of the tortured 20th-century history of Germany. But in The House by the Lake, Thomas Harding succeeds remarkably . . . It is a fitting and moving epitaph on a tragic and beautifully told history.

An original and highly personal take on this corner of history. Harding writes engagingly and sympathetically...an uplifting story.

The real history of twentieth-century Germany seen through the windows of one abode with the Berlin Wall right outside. It’s original and camera-vivid.

This is a compelling book…It’s a story of endurance – of place as well as people – and ultimately, it’s uplifting.

A brilliant way of coming at the history of Berlin and Germany itself, which shows how people coped with the vicissitudes of the regime.

Harding has recorded the fate of the house and its inhabitants, from the Weimar republic until reunification. This is German history in microcosm ... as exciting as a good historical novel.

An inspirational read: highly recommended.

A genuinely remarkable work of biographical innovation.

I’d like to reread Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey every Christmas for at least the next five years: I love being between its humane pages, which celebrate both scholarly companionship and deep feeling for the past

Ruth Scurr’s innovative take on biography has an immediacy that brings the 17th century alive

Anyone who has not read Ruth Scurr’s John Aubrey can have a splendid time reading it this summer. Scurr has invented an autobiography the great biographer never wrote, using his notes, letters, observations – and the result is gripping

A triumph, capturing the landscape and the history of the time, and Aubrey’s cadence.

A brilliantly readable portrait in diary form. Idiosyncratic, playful and intensely curious, it is the life story Aubrey himself might have written.

Scurr knows her subject inside out.

The diligent Scurr has evidence to support everything… Learning about him is to learn more about his world than his modest personality, but Scurr helps us feel his pain at the iconoclasm and destruction wrought by the Puritans without resorting to overwrought language.

Acclaimed and ingeniously conceived semi-fictionalised autobiography… Scurr’s greatest achievement is to bring both Aubrey and his world alive in detail that feels simultaneously otherworldly and a mirror of our own age… It’s hard to think of a biographical work in recent years that has been so bold and so wholly successful.