This collection [...] is a major source of information concerning one of the most influential composers of the mid-twentieth century and the musicians he knew.
DELIUS JOURNAL
This is a fascinating and always interesting read - splendid for bedtime dipping and, thanks to the index, for research. Strongly recommended.
ELGAR SOCIETY JOURNAL
One doesn't need to be an admirer of Lennox Berkeley's music to appreciate the wisdom and insights which this most welcome collection of various writings has to offer. [...] Peter Dickinson is to be commended for bringing together this illuminating material.
MUSICAL TIMES
Every page in this excellently edited, finely produced volume speaks of a composer who listened to his inner voice, turning a deaf ear to the blandishments of fame or fortune. ... [Berkeley] has been too often overlooked; Peter Dickinson's book will surely do much to remedy that.
BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE
[Berkeley's writings reveal the same kindly, urbane and by no means undiscerning personality that is heard in his music.
INTERNATIONAL PIANO
This valuable book reminds us that by keenly analysing limitations in other composers and himself without undue cruelty, Berkeley was more than the gentle and kindly soul whom all of the interviewees recall; he was also a most perceptive thinker about opera.
OPERA
[T]his is a handsome and welcome tribute to a composer who did not necessarily make a huge statement [...] As a publication and as a chronicle of a creative life, it could not be better achieved.
GRAMOPHONE
[P]rolific composer and well-loved man, Lennox Berkeley [...] remains an enigma to most of us even if we know little of his enormous output of songs, symphonies, ballets and spiritually inclined choral music. [...] [This] new collection of writings, letters and interviews, edited by his one-time pupil Peter Dickinson, offers an easily digested introduction to the composer and his milieu.
SPECTATOR
After reading [this] new volume I feel I almost knew the man. [...] highly recommended.
CLASSICAL.NET
This book is essential reading for all enthusiasts of 20th century music, and will be of tremendous value to all scholars of British music in particular and Western music in general.
John France
MUSIC.WEB.INTERNATIONAL