"A moving account of the Elizabethan golden age, retold through the varying fortunes of the Pembroke family, and a tour de force. . . . A brilliantly imaginative and beautifully written coup of scholarship." -- The Observer (London)

"A superb book, beautifully written, subtle, passionate, questioning, mind-altering and wise." -- Daily Mail (London)

"Absorbing. . . . Wonderful, lyrical and contemplative." -- The Guardian

"This is a rich, informative and original book." -- Noel Malcolm, Daily Telegraph (London)

"Beautifully written and finely balanced. . . . A disarmingly readable contribution to the history of ideas. . . . An elegant, thoughtful, imaginative book about the need for dreams and the ugliness of modernisation. . . . His book will give abiding pleasure." -- Sunday Times (London)