""In each case an event or a figure that scholars had previously confined to passing references becomes a key to unlock the broadest possible understanding of their respective periods. Now, with Rohan McWilliam's rich book we can add the Tichborne imposture case to this (partial) list of episodes rescued from the indifference of posterity. But what makes this addition especially remarkable is the fact that the Tichborne story, unlike most others in this genre, is not simply an unnoticed backdoor key to the bigger picture. Rather, as McWilliam persuasively shows, it is itself the bigger picture." - Dror Wahrman, Victorian Studies, Winter 2008" --Dror Wahrman

""McWilliam argues that the Claimant's narrative can best be understood as a melodrama, a dramatic form then still in the mainstream of popular culture...In doing so, he has not only told us that story in its full delirious glory for the first time, but he has showed us how much "sense" it did make to contemporaries, and in doing so has made a genuinely important contribution to our understanding of popular consciousness-truly, a rescue of popular experience from the condescension of posterity." - Peter Mandler, H-Net Reviews, October 2007" --Peter Mandler, H' Net Review

"Rohan McWilliam's account goes further in unteasing the many strands of this baffling and delightfully ludicrous affair" --Sarah Wise, Literary Review

"Mentioned in Publishing News, October 2007" --Publishing News

""Despite the esteemed former Tablet editor Douglas Woodruff's fine book on the subject, published 50 years ago, this thoroughly researched biography ought to be the standard work on the matter for our times." Tablet, July 2007" --Tablet, The