'This is a fascinatingly extraordinary book which combines the force of "Decline and Fall," the Gothic enormities of the Powys brothers, and conveys them with that innate compassion for adolescence that marked Iris Murdoch's "The Bell."' - Angus Wilson 'I admire "Lord Dismiss Us" as a brilliant work of art and I enjoyed it so much that I hated to finish it.' - Christopher Isherwood 'Marvellous. I read it very slowly because I was enjoying it so much. I think it achieves a sort of tragic beauty and it is "really" about love, which all novels profess to be about, but hardly any are.' - Iris Murdoch 'A remarkable evocation of the process of growing up and the ghastly but somehow paradisal closed world of school. I admire particularly the extreme economy of the writing and the way in which the characters are limned chiefly by what they say-the true way of fiction, the dramatic way.... [A] very good novel indeed.' - Anthony Burgess '[T]he humorous is nicely balanced with the serious. The characters are not mere targets for the author's wit, but people who might do something unexpected if the author took his eye off them.... What an extraordinary world Mr Campbell has brought to life!' - "Irish Times" 'Simply the best novel by Michael Campbell to date.... The terrible claustrophobic atmosphere of private education is caught to the life, or death.' - "Observer" '[M]oving and fine ... the comedy makes the strongest impression ... extremely funny and ... deeply authentic.' - "New York Times" Mr Crabtree has just arrived to take over as headmaster at Weatherhill, an English public school whose reputation is on the decline, and with the help of his meddlesome wife and odious daughter, he is determined to turn things around. But Crabtree is totally devoid of either sympathy or understanding and his misguided efforts lead to hilarious disasters, such as when he invites a girls' school for tea to try to woo the boys from their 'unnatural ways'. Meanwhile, Mrs Crabtree is i
