The Pike Gabriele d'Annunzio, Poet, Seducer and Preacher of War. Winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction. Winner of the 2013 Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction

'Hard to beat ... a biographical tour de force ... a rich, voluptuous treat ... a triumph, the biography of the year' Robert McCrum, Observer, 'Books of the Year'

'[The Pike] dramatically extends biography's formal range to encompass a daunting theme' TLS, 'Books of the Year'

'This is a magnificent portrait of a preposterous character ... deplorable, brilliant, ludicrous, tragic but above all irresistible, as hundreds of women could testify. His biographer has done him full justice' Francis Wheen, Daily Mail

'A cracker of a biography, an extraordinary story of literary accomplishment, passionate war-mongering and sexual incorrigibility... In less skilled hands this could have been a disaster; in fact it works wonderfully well' Spectator, 'Books of the Year'

'Beautiful, strange and original ... an extraordinarily intimate portrait' New Statesman

'Hugely enjoyable ... Hughes-Hallett has a great talent for encapsulating an era or an attitude ...That almost 700 pages flew by bears testimony to how pleasurable and readable those pages were' Sunday Times

'A splendid subject for a biography ... Hughes-Hallett dances her way through this extraordinary life in a style that is playful, punchy and generally pleasing ... In death, as in life, the amazing story of D'Annunzio is painted in primary colours, but with the darkest shadows' Observer

'A riveting biography ... It must have been so tempting to be judgmental, but Hughes-Hallett allows us to judge for ourselves' Antonia Fraser, Daily Mail, 'Books of the Year'

'Not only an inspired telling of a life that becomes more repellent with each page, it illuminates early 20th-century Europe in brilliant, unexpected ways' Observer

'Electrifying ... a fascinating portrait ... Hughes-Hallett relates his journey from romantic idealist to Right-wing warmonger with flair and insight' Daily Express

'Hugely enjoyable ... Hughes-Hallett has a great talent for encapsulating an era or an attitude ...The fact that almost 700 pages flew by bears testimony to how pleasurable and readable those pages were' Sunday Times 'This is a magnificent portrait of a preposterous character ... D'Annunzio was deplorable, brilliant, ludicrous, tragic but above all irresistible, as hundreds of women could testify. His biographer has done him full justice' Francis Wheen, Daily Mail '[Her] longlisting for the Samuel Johnson non-fiction prize is well-deserved' Independent on Sunday 'Hughes-Hallett chooses not to judge, taking the position that disapproval is not an interesting response. Instead she teases apart the man from his self-made myth... She is never seduced by her subject, repeatedly reminding us of his fundamental lack of empathy, something elegantly encapsulated by the cover image itself: D'Annunzio mirrored, frozen in self-admiration' Daily Telegraph 'A splendid subject for a biography... Hughes-Hallet dances her way through this extraordinary life in a style that is playful, punchy and generally pleasing... In death, as in life, the amazing story of D'Annunzio is painted in primary colours, but with the darkest shadows' Observer 'What Hughes-Hallett achieves in this tour de force, is to keep us fascinated by such an ostensibly loathsome specimen, emphasising the contradictions between a man of creative sensibilities with a bloodthirsty warmonger who help shaped emergent fascism' Daily Mail 'The story is told by Hughes-Hallett with verve, a fine storyteller's touch and an acute eye for period paraphernalia and sensibility... The whole is enthralling curiosity' Literary Review