"It's especially impressive that Gibb manages to chronicle West's often complicated life in an even-handed, coherent way. Fast-paced and well-researched, The Extraordinary Life of Rebecca West is a fine biography of a writer whose life and career was full of fascinating contradictions and intersections." -- NPR Books "This biography is fast-paced and written with sympathy for Cicely" -- The Missourian "A new biography of Rebecca West details the private battles of one of the most renowned journalists of the 20th century." -- Star Tribune "West was a woman of 'surprising contradictions,' and this biography captures them all without losing sight of the very real person in whom they resided." -- Washington Post "Gibb's meticulous biography, [.] concentrates [.] on her magnetic subject's complex personality and all the drama and controversy that make West's life truly "extraordinary."-- Booklist ".

as Gibb reminds us, West's work deserves to be remembered and appreciated in its own right." -- National Geographic Praise for the UK Edition of West's World : ".it presents with discerning succinctness, a sharply etched portrait of a true original.Cissie Fairfield remained alive and well inside her alter ego, to judge from Lorna Gibb's brisk and affectionate biography."-- The Sunday Times "This riveting book is not a typical literary biography.Lorna Gibb may have read all of Rebecca West's vast output, but she does not flaunt it.Miss Gibb wisely leaves it to others to appraise her subject as a writer. What she does is to tell a gripping story of a woman's life.

"-- Country Life ".in this calm, well researched biography she does an excellent job of reminding us why West was so ahead of her time."-- The Mail ".Lorna Gibb makes the most of the reams of papers that West and her many friends and acquaintances produced."-- Literary Review.