This brilliant collection of essays should be a feast for his admirers, as well as for those who approach his dazzling oeuvre for the first time...Calvino is not only constantly and supremely intelligent; he is constantly and supremely faithful to his narrative imagination

Calvino juggles with ideas, spinning around the roles of reader, author, character, in ever-changing spheres, seeking the literary form that is yet to be, to fill the bookshelf as yet uncarved

It's one of the many joys of The Literature Machine that the reader, always a crucial player in Calvino's literary game, gets to watch the writer also as a reader, though at one further remove. That the game is serious is never in doubt, however playful, however feather-light its motions. In Calvino's fictions, the narrative gymnastics, the comic irony, the enchantments of fantasy and the charm of paradox all perform exquisitely precise manoeuvres in that area "between the lightness of ideas and heavy weight of the world

Powell’s novel sequence is at once a rich chronicle of 20th-century English social life and an intricately wrought work of art. It is also extremely funny, in its sly fashion.

The novels of Powell’s “A Dance to the Music of Time” themselves move hand in hand in intricate measure through the last century, bearing wisdom and understanding for the present. In an ever-quicker, ever-shallower world, his steadiness and wit reliably escort the reader into depth and patience. Nobody gives pattern to the spectacle of human existence like Powell.

Reading “A Dance to the Music of Time” was such a joyous experience, I remember wishing there'd been more than twelve volumes.

A masterful stylist and a wise, often hilarious observer of human nature and his times, Anthony Powell is an under-appreciated literary gem. The pleasures and dramas of the "Dance" continue to illuminate daily life.

I re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life.

He has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply

Incalculably brilliant

[A] comic masterpiece

Comic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive

It's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English Literature.

The London Train is an intelligent and gently manipulative story of human weakness and lies... Wicked but delightful

Hadley offers first-class views on the psychological scenery of 21st-century Britain

A passionate, hilarious look at mid-twentieth-century Britain.

Something I know I love ... Anthony Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time, which I could read endlessly.

I’m bowled over, hooked and, hurrah, there are 11 more volumes to go as Jenkins grows up. Terrific.

A highly accomplished debut, this is a chilling portrait of racial tension, social immorality, betrayal and love, and also an atmospheric examination of the end of innocence.

The writing is strong and though the sections featuring Gay's earlier life lose momentum, the story picks up pace when the girls' paths become entwined and the conclusion is compelling and thrillingly macabre.

This fictional account of a true story gives a darkly shocking version of the events surrounding this tragic case.

Brilliantly melds a factual post-war murder into a dark fictional tale