When you have spent the best part of a decade working on a large and ambitious book that has lots of dirty bits and breaks most of the rules for proper academic writing, it’s squeaky bum time.  Despite the faith of your publisher you wait for it to sink into ignominious oblivion.

A long and enthusiastic review in the Life & Arts section of the Saturday Financial Times, headlined “The Czech avant-garde deserves a place at the heart of interwar culture,” helps no end.  I’m in good (if somewhat unlikely) company, on the same page as Albert Camus Algerian Chronicles and Eduardo Galeano Children of the Days.  I loved Camus’ The Fall as a teenager, and discovered Galeano’s wonderful Memory of Fire trilogy sometime in the ’90s.

Thanks Tony Barber (FT Europe editor). The FT asks that people don’t cut and paste from their website but give the link. The whole review can be read here.