Peter Parker's biography is as frank and often almost as witty as Ackerley's own books . . . But Ackerley is more than a candid account of one man's public and private life; it is also a candid view of London in mid-century, full of entertaining anecdotes about literary figures. If Ackerley had chosen a biographer himself he could hardly have done better. --Alison Lurie, The New York Times Book Review