Beautiful Ruins

Just about the perfect summer read. It is intelligent and thought-provoking, but also a lot of fun. Reading hours fly by and reaching the final page feels like a genuine wrench

Sunday Times

Ambitious, large-hearted, exhilarating novel that leaves you wanting more . . . Very, very funny

The Times

Beautiful Ruins is a novel unlike any other you're likely to read this year

Nick Hornby

Romantic, very funny...Turbo-charged satire meets a Garcia Marquezesque love story. What's not to like?

Daily Mail

Walter creates an epic here - one that took him 15 years to write. The end result, however, is well worth the wait

Observer

A sparkling summer read

Telegraph

Thoroughly enjoyable, a tender, funny, ridiculous tale which has love at its core and a keen satirical edge to cut through the lovely, lush romanticism

Sunday Express

You're going to love this book

New York Times Book Review

A brilliant, madcap meditation on fate

Kirkus Reviews

A novel shot in sparkly Technicolor

Booklist

The beach read of the summer

Vogue

Hilarious and compelling

Esquire

Magic. Walter is a believer in capricious destiny with a fine, freewheeling sense of humour . . . A monument to crazy love with a deeply romantic heart

New York Times

Poignant, comical and marvellous

San Francisco Chronicle

Larger-than-life characters, billowy romance and crafty satire ... Any book that includes Richard Burton as a character is fine by us

Esquire

Cinematic and utterly romantic . . . the big beach read for summer

Sunday Times

My absolute favourite read this year

Nick Curtis, Evening Standard 'Books of the Year'

A bravura feat

Peter Kemp, Sunday Times 'Books of the Year'

Walter's account of the filming of the Burton/Taylor classic Cleopatra is a playful imagining of emotional history and hidden lives just out of view. Be warned, this is a novel that may make any festive guests somewhat anti-social as I read it in two days flat

Olivia Cole, GQ 'Books of the Year'