Poisoned Pens
By Gary Dexter
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An engrossing collection of visceral opinions. - Northern Echo
Extremely entertaining - a pot pourri of wit and invective. - Daily Mail
Impressively comprehensive and fully referenced, this is a highly amusing and sometimes deeply disturbing portrait of writers and their very best…and their very worst! - Lancashire Evening Post
A collection of snippets from those who already know how to write novels, though they do not always agree on how it should be done, and none of them are afraid of explaining where the others have gone wrong. - Daily Telegraph
A delightfully malicious compilation of literary invective across the centuries, registering the less than kind views of one author for another. We always knew that the profession of writing was as cut throat as any other. Now we can see little authorial daggers doing their malicious work... The nastiness is amazing. Do go and buy copies of 'Poisoned Pens' for your curmudgeonly friends. it is a perfect Christmas book for those seeking to stem the glut of good will. - Wall Street Journal
The most comprehensive anthology of its kind, unique in nature, let alone content, and perhaps an indication that writers do have a demented streak, glorious though it may be. - West End Extra
Demonstrates that there's virtually no reputation - however grand - that hasn't been exposed at some time to dismissive scorn. - Independent
Like other blood sports it is a guilty pleasure that Mr Dexter supplies. But the book passes the ultimate sales test: one wishes it was twice as long. - Times
Impressively comprehensive and fully referenced, this is a highly amusing and sometimes deeply disturbing portrait of writers at their very best… and their very worst! - Lancashire Evening Post
A wonderfully entertaining anthology. - Literary Review
Minature essays of invective - all very entertaining, and revealing surprising insights into both the attacker and the attacked. - Oxford Times
'With the single exception of Homer, there is no eminent writer, not even Sir Walter Scott, whom I can despise so entirely as I despise Shakespeare.' George Bernard Shaw
From what Byron really thought of Keats to Salman Rushdie's savage put-down of John Le Carre, from Cocteau's damning view of Victor Hugo to Edith Sitwell's derogatory description of D.H. Lawrence, here, complied by the author of Why Not Catch 21? is an anthology of writers on writers, eloquently giving vent to their least charitable feelings in outbursts of petulance, denunciations, abuse, mockery, and more.
What the reviewers said about Why Not Catch 21?
'A deliciously witty and erudite collection which, as with a box of chocolate liqueurs, I had to discipline myself not to consume too quickly. Few writers have ever worn their learning as lightly as Gary Dexter.' Gilbert Adair
'Fifty delicious little essays about, in some cases, very familiar books, which tell you things you didn't know before and occasionally draw odd and unexpected conclusions. If no one buys this delightful book for you, buy it for yourself. No literary lavatory will be complete without a copy.' Spectator
240 pages
