David Ellis's book is graceful, grave and elegantly written. Frequently witty and always well chosen in its detail, it ranges much more widely than its ostensible subject matter.
William Palmer, Literary Review
Absorbing throughout
Laura Dietz, Times Literary Supplement
If the subject is sombre, the account of Lawrence himself - great, complex, exasperating, brave - and the responses of his wife and various friends, are told with such verve and wit that I found myself laughing as I read.
A brilliant, humane book
Steven Poole, The Guardian
Elegant, detailed and darkly humorous account of the demise of D H Lawrence.
Brian Dillon, Irish Times
an elegant, detailed and darkly humorous account of the demise of DH Lawrence ... Ellis's biographical experiment is a profoundly instructive and moving success.
Brian Dillon, Irish Times
Ellis has a fine, mordant sense of humour that plays eloquently with the theme of consumption, that knell also of Keats, Katherine Mansfield, Kafka and Chekhov.
Iain Finlayson, The Times
a compelling book
Victoria Glendinning, The Spectator
...replete with allusions...much factual detail with additional reverie on how people act in the face of death...
Karl Orend, Times Literary Supplement