'That rarest of all finds: a genuine no-punches-pulled, unromanticised working class novel. Mr Sillitoe is a born writer, who knows his milieu and describes it with vivid, loving precision.' Daily Telegraph
'His writing has real experience in it and an instinctive accuracy that never loses its touch. His book has a glow about it as though he had plugged it into some basic source of the working-class spirit.' Guardian
'Miles nearer the real thing than D. H. Lawrence's mystic, brooding working-men ever came.' Sunday Express
'Outspoken and vivid.' Sunday Times
'A refreshing originality.' Times Literary Supplement