‘A controlled and subtly crafted novel that deals with a deep truth of human experience: flawed love that is yet worth struggling to preserve.’
Barry Unsworth
‘One of the best novels I have read for a long time … All the best aspects of the English literary tradition are brought together here and woven into a bright whole … destined to become a kind of a classic.’
Alma Hromic, Cape Argus
‘Peake’s voice is individual, lucid, moving.’
Madeleine Keane, Image Magazine
‘A mystical vision of ordinary life … brilliant and rapturous.’
Hugh Barnes, Glasgow Herald
‘A novel of constraint and reflection … loaded with wit, entertaining double meanings and cultural asides.’
Douglas Reid Skinner, The Star and SA Times International
‘(Peake) writes with dry ease on the difficulty of being alive.’
David Hughes, Mail on Sunday
‘Peake’s extraordinary achievement is to have captured the spirit of each age, tracking the growth of Jarman the artist and man in the context of the changing world around him … Every great life is made greater by a great Life, and Peake has given Derek Jarman the biography he deserves.’
‘Outstanding … the thorough-going life story that the British experimental director and gay crusader deserved.’
Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
‘The best kind of biographical writing – simple and transparent – so you see through to the life.’
James Hopkin, Independent on Sunday