Seize the Hour

Macmillan provides a highly readable narrative which combines detail and approachability, stuffed with acute observations and wonderful vignettes - Jonathan Fenby, Observer

Seize the Hour is an admirable example of the storyteller's power... she pulls us along with her vigorous narrative and telling details - Jonathan Mirsky, Spectator

She writes vividly and in detail ... This is diplomatic history at its most lively and accessible - Sir Percy Cradock, Sunday Telegraph

The deep background to a clash of cultures, politics and national interests is narrated with operatic pace and sound scholarship - The Times

[MacMillan's] narrative grips ... a worthy successor to Peacemakers - Max Hastings, The Sunday Times

Margaret MacMillan ... has now done fitting justice to another great diplomatic episode. With a sharp eye for the ironic and the bizarre, she describes the intrigues, the insults and the betrayals of her characters. ... This is a great story, entertainingly told - The Economist

Macmillan covers the geopolitical ramifications clearly and concisely but also adds great anecdotal titbits about the characters involved and the problems thrown up by the clash of two such vastly different cultures, making this an absorbing account - Siobhan Murphy, Metro

A superbly researched and immensely detailed account - Paul Johnson, Literary Review