She is like no other critic I have ever read: limpid, revelatory and startlingly attentive to every nuance
Financial Times
Malcolm writes wonderfully well. Her character sketches are superb. Malcolm's own talents are such that even on an off day she can't write a boring sentence
John Lancaster
Daily Telegraph
Affectionate and insightful... Her writing is exuberant... Malcolm can be captivating whatever her subject
Simon Hammond
Observer
Quite simply the best book about his methods as a storyteller I have read
Paul Bailey
Sunday Times
She has the shy writer's gift for coming up with highly provocative statements in the quiet of her study - that the biographer is like "the professional burglar", that the work of the journalist is "morally indefensible" - and then claiming to be surprised when people are provoked. She is not about to get caught out in careless self-revelation
Independent
Malcolm gets to the heart of Chekhov, or at least comprehensibly, and comprehensively, maps out his mysteries for us, not only telling us what makes him tick but why we should regard him as one of the greatest writers to have lived
Guardian