RaveThe Spectator (UK)A superb, sparky and reflective book ... The book comes across as a generous love letter to Bloomsbury; and the author allows that she has skin in this game ‘as the mother of a teenager who identifies as gender-fluid and queer’. So far, so commendable.
Luke Barr
MixedThe New York Review of BooksLuke Barr almost makes good on the promise of his subtitle to describe \'the rise of the leisure class.\' He does give the reader a glimpse of how mobile (and slippery) Edwardian social life was, so that anybody with money could dine at the Savoy. Barr is especially sensitive to, and frequently mentions, the anti-Semites who resented the part wealthy Jews had in the creation of this new, democratic leisure class ... In general, Barr has trouble with British titles (which are important to telling the story of a pair of rogues whose livelihood depended on snobbery), listing \'lords, barons, and earls\' even though barons and earls are ipso facto lords ... Barr is excellent on food except when he gives the ingredients of ratatouille but calls the dish \'cassoulet.\' He understands the history and culinary properties of ingredients and recipes, however ... The real failing of this entertaining book, though, is the novelization of the narrative: Barr constantly tells us, with no source cited, what is going on in his characters’ heads.
