Alexandria

[Alexandria] exerts a powerful attraction. It is as good an evocation of one of the world's most absorbing cities as one could imagine. It is the depth and quality of Stothard's insights into himself that will make me go back to this book again and again -- John Simpson * Mail on Sunday * A fine travel book. The editor of the TLS, Peter Stothard, found inspiration in Alexandria and writes of its place in his heart and his obsession with Cleopatra -- Melissa Katsoulis * Daily Telegraph * Others can praise Stothard's journalistic precision but what impressed me more is the Classical self-knowledge... [Alexandria is] shot through with a supremely humane intelligence -- Stuart Kelly * Scotsman * Subtle, haunting and complex... Stothard, like Cavafy, takes his place in the venerable tradition of Alexandrian elegy -- Tom Holland * Guardian * [It is] with great skill [that] the various elements are knotted together to produce a very eerie sense of moving back and forth through place and time... Wonderful, surprising [and] uplifting -- John Preston * Daily Mail * Stothard marshals his material superbly to create an absorbing mix of history, biography and memoir -- Ian Critchley * Sunday Times * The elegant unfolding of his themes into shape is akin to literary origami -- Iain Finlayson * The Times * Stothard has brought back from his quixotic North African jaunt the materials of a very fine book indeed -- John Sutherland * New Statesman * Some episode are in the same comic league [as] Jonathan Coe's The Rotters Club... Stothard enduringly evokes the fragility of life and memory -- Tom Payne * Telegraph * His discursive story of brooding on Cleopatra is fascinating, a book full of surprises, humour, information and reflections; it's a walk through the rich estate that is Peter Stothard's mind -- Allan Massie * Literary Review * Like the tales it has to tell, this book's genre slips attractively in and out of focus... Consistently bewitching and very moving too -- Boyd Tonkin * Independent * Touching and funny in the finest tradition of English letters -- Ahdaf Souef * The Times * A heady mixture of ancient history, modern reportage and personal confession, it touches on the literary sensibility like the effect of a drug -- Giles Foden * Condé Nast Traveller * Thoroughly engrossing -- Daisy Dunn * Standpoint * For readers open to a genre-defying journey through history and Egypt led by a reflective, impassioned tour guide with a gift for precise and emotional prose, Alexandria is a rich experience * New Haven Register * Wonderful -- Nicholas Lezard * Guardian * It's a love letter to England and a rumination on the nature of history and politics -- Ahdaf Soueif * The Times * An absorbing mix of history, biography and memoir... Superb -- Ian Critchley * Sunday Times * Remarkable... It's an engrossing mixture of the personal and political, of history and travelogue, skilful and compelling in its delivery -- Sally Morris * Daily Mail * [Full of] literary turns [and] magical passages -- Christopher Hirst * Independent * A rich account of Stothard's visit to Egypt and how the Arab spring complicated his plans to complete a Cleopatra biography * Observer * Erudite * Sunday Telegraph * The juxtaposition between the Essex of his upbringing and the Egypt of his imagination lends the book a rich poignancy -- David Evans * Independent on Sunday * [This] elegant book is a combination of memoir, biography and reportage * Mail on Sunday * Stothard has woven three threads of his life together in this appealing memoir... Alexandria provides an enlightening glimpse inside the mind of a great thinker and editor -- Isabelle Fraser * Financial Times * Outstanding... this is expertly crafted writing of the highest calibre -- Philippa Williams * The Lady ***** *