SOURCE: "The Antique Collector's Guide," in Times Literary Supplement, No. 4669, September 25, 1992, p. 24.

In the review below, Keates finds The Volcano Lover brilliant at its core but lacking in consistency and discipline.

The historical events, characters and contexts explored by this remarkable book [The Volcano Lover] constitute the richest of rewards to any novelist. There is something instantly enviable in the prospect of being able to embark on a story which, in addition to its exotic setting beneath the minatory shadow of Vesuvius, will embrace Lord Nelson, Lady Hamilton, Goethe, Beckford, and that copper-bottomed harpy, Queen Maria Carolina of Naples, as well as throwing in, with a certain cheeky self-assurance, the figures of Angelotti, Scarpia and Floria Tosca from Sardou via Puccini. Who, after all, would not wish to have taken some part, as actor or witness, in these lives, against the background of so sublimely irrational a moment...