The Hound in the Left-Hand Corner (International Handbooks on Information Systems) - Hardcover

sharply observed scenes... an amusing... tale of thwarted dreams, treacherous subterfuge and repressed sexual passion... reads like a rollicking 18th-century romp in head-on collision with an old-fashioned detective story... the reader finds himself reacting... with horror and hilarity in equal measure (Mark Irving, Financial Times)

It is difficult to believe that the writer who made his debut with the elegiac, subtle half-tones of THE LONG AFTERNOON should now have produced this dazzling fireworks display of a novel... [But] THE HOUND IN THE LEFT-HAND CORNER is no less satisfying than its highly lauded predecessor... Waterfield is entirely at home in his subject... he rarely produces a dull paragraph or even sentence... this book combines arcane information and sparkling entertainment with equal verve and skill (Francis King, Daily Telegraph)

Waterfield's wry examination of sponsorship versus scholarship as the primary aim of cultural institutions makes a timely and enjoyable read (Daily Mail)

'... a wicked expose of bland, politically correct culture and its unholy combination with big business, vanity and the art market' Anna Somers Socks: editor, the Art Newspaper

'I missed the author's first novel... described by Margaret Forsters as 'bliss'. In one word, I would call his latest 'heavenly'... Waterfield's novel is full of fun, and has the same sort of wicked wit which makes David Lodge so memorable a novelist. I just cannot wait for his next... This is a comic novel of enormous quality' Tim Manderson in Publishing News, 12/04/02

A read to relish. It aims to show the whole 'vanity fair' of the British cultural establishment. And, like VANITY FAIR, it is pretty much a novel without a hero [including] a panoply of sharply drawn characters (Art Newspaper)

Intrigue and passion seethe beneath the surface in this wonderful comic delight (Woman and Home)

Waterfield has a sharp eye and clear ear for the vanities of public position... a delicious satire. I have not read anything since C.P. Snow's THE MASTERS which deals so well with the nasty tensions of trying to keep an intellect intact in public service. .. can be read as an amusing comedy, or as an acidulous critique of the contrary, even destructive, forces at large in the museum world (Stephen Bayley, Independent)

I laughed until I cried and vice versa... not only brilliant but TRUE... a fascinating and profoundly disturbing debate... the hound in the left-hand corner must be wagging his tail (Marina Vaizey (in email))

A sardonic and brilliantly witty tale that deftly combines intellectual comedy with knockabout farce (Margaret Walters, The Sunday Times)

story of my life in the eighties + most of the reasons I wanted to get out of the whole performing circus! Oh dear, it was so funny and so true (Sir Roy Strong)

BRIT, the Museum of British History, tries hard to combine tradition with modernity. Tonight there's to be an extravagant banquet to celebrate the opening of its much touted exhibition ELEGANCE: guests will dine on Lobster House of Stuart, Beef Plantagenet and Berries Tudor Rose. Present will be a wayward chef, an overambitious Director, a vainglorious Chairman, a restored Gainsborough portrait of a lady dressed as Puck... Add backbiting, sexual innuendo, even romance - it's all highly suitable for a Midsummer Night. And just what is wrong with that Hound in the Left-Hand Corner?