An expert cultural study ... both authoritative and entertaining and offers a much-needed antidote to the din of the Brexit debate. Here is the long view, across three centuries, of a cultural exchange that is rich, complex and tenacious ... one of the pleasures of The Warm South is its restless flitting from place to place, vicariously guided by long-dead visitors or residents ... Also a pleasure are the book’s illustrations, full of the color and light and casual antiquity that are so much part of the story.
Holland’s searching, original book takes Keats’s phrase and hugely widens its scope ... Holland has the advantage of boundless enthusiasm and seemingly limitless reading. I have seldom read a book that uses out-of-the-way knowledge so tellingly ... At all events this is a book so crammed with interest that when you finish it you feel like starting all over again to make sure you haven’t missed anything.
Holland’s focus is thus circumscribed, but within these limits is wide-ranging and erudite ... Many curious characters populate these dense but enjoyable pages ... [a] sweeping survey.
