Illustrated throughout in black and white

‘A blockbuster of a book, a work which will inspire admiration and wonder … writing with equal assurance about poetry, novels, painting, architecture, film and music’ – Noel Malcolm, The Sunday Telegraph`… tells the story of modern cultural history with unflagging freshness, and without an ounce of surplus stylistic fat` – Terry Eagleton, London Review of Books`… a book with everything in it, a fascinating melange, going in all directions at once` – Hanif Kureishi, Guardian Books of the Year`Conrad is stunningly well-informed, compulsively allusive and equipped with the kind of imagination that transforms the base metal of contemporary history into pure gold` – Robert McCrum, The Observer