“Exhaustively researched and resonant in detail. It is a splendid reassessment of a man who was both typical of his own time and light years ahead of it.”

– Fiona MacCarthy, Guardian

“One of the best political biographies for many years. It is not just a book about the past; it’s bursting with ideas that remain relevant to the future of humanity.”

– Peter Tatchell, Observer Books of the Year

“A powerful and entertaining biography of the ‘sexy sage of Sheffield' ... This absorbing book opens the whole period of early socialism in Britain. And it reads beautifully.”

– Jeanette Winterson, Times

“Immensely valuable.”

– Colm Tóibín, London Review of Books

“Magnificent … definitive.”

– Tristram Hunt, Observer

“I devoured these 550 pages in a day, longing for more.”

– Richard Canning, Independent

“Sheila Rowbotham has given us not just an account of one remarkable individual's life, but has helped to explain how we evolved into the society we are today.”

– Martin Pugh, Times Literary Supplement

“An excellent new biography. Rowbotham masterfully renders Carpenter relevant by writing with authority as well as a humorous intimacy that comes from spending decades studying Carpenter.”

– Politics and Culture