Hadley Freeman House Of Glass-The Story and secrets of a twentieth-century Jewish family

"Sometimes it's as well to be educated as entertained."

"As Freeman's previous books have included The Meaning of Sunglasses: A guide to (almost) all things fashionable...and How To Be Awesome: Modern life for modern ladies...this is quite a change of subject matter."

"She is loving but sceptical towards her family, managing to break down the self-mythologising of her great-uncle Alex while also exploring the dangers inherent in the stereotype of Jewish passivity ..."

"Bearing witness is a powerful motive, but Freeman also frames House of Glass as a warning against a backdrop of rising nationalism and anti-semitism across the world ..."

"reeman's technique is chronological, as she follows one sibling and then shifts to another, which allows readers to learn all the stories ..."

"An affecting and ambitious writer, as well as an exacting historian, Freeman tackles anti-Semitism, Jewish guilt and success...Without her ancestors' 'extraordinary force of personality,' their bold actions, even those resulting in lasting grief, we wouldn't be fortunate enough to have Freeman or this exceptional book."

"Freeman is a determined and eloquent detective."

"It should be read by anybody who believes history is an abstraction."

"This version of the saga, and a saga it certainly is, is a distanced chronicle written without the familiar ambivalence between sympathy and disparagement, the absence of barely acknowledged love and admiration."