".unfailingly amusing and intermittently risque, delivered with smooth, slightly ironic panache." -Foreign Affairs"This splendid book by historian and art critic Simon Schama could hardly be better timed since it might plausibly be argued that 'the face of Britain' changed on or about June 23, 2016." -Christopher Benfey, The New York Times Book Review "He knows the history, the biography, and the art history. he made me look and learn. He is a great storyteller and we learn something new on every page." -A. S.

Byatt, New Statesman "All of these lives rendered with an acuity of detail that could rival the best of portraitists . describing Lawrence's portrait of Wilberforce, Schama calls the painting a work of 'transforming empathy.' That phrase could be true of his storytelling throughout this book." -Ekow Eshun, The Independent "Simon Schama's richly illustrated history of Britain in portraits is a work of dazzling panache . a book to devour." -John Carey, Sunday Times"Wonderfully compelling . what this book, full of unhackneyed paintings and unfamiliar stories, shows is that when Schama is at his best he can see straight through people." -Michael Prodger, ^iThe Times^r "Rich in its variety of subjects .

poignantly memorable" -Martin Gayford, ^iTelegraph^r"Some of the best writing on British portraiture I have read." -Bendor Grosvenor, ^iFinancial Times^r "He is both an inspired communicator of detail and context, an excitable and exciting critic and a sleeve-tugging gossip. The idea of portraiture is a perfect vehicle for his detailed imagination.the subjects of the portraits become uncannily alive." -Tim Adams, ^iThe Observer^r"He has animated our portraits superlatively. One of our most in-demand public intellectuals has deftly ventriloquised his talking heads." -^iEvening Standard^r"Viewers of his TV shows know what a passionate presenter of his subject - art history - Simon Schama is. He button-holes your eye on his inward voyage of imagination.

He does it as compulsively on the page as on screen . I welcome back in this book history as people - people whose characters can be read in their fascinating faces." -^iDaily Mail^r"Schama's greatest gift is a sure eye for an extraordinary story.This isn't what you get from conventional historians or conventional art writers, more's the pity. Schama has written books which will still be bought and talked about a century from now and he hasn't lost an ounce of zest or intelligence. Damn him." -Andrew Marr, ^iProspect^r.