Heroic Failure: Brexit and the Politics of Pain - Tapa blanda

'[O'Toole] is a sharp thinker and he makes many good points ... There is also a lot to learn from his incidental arguments. This is a literary book and I was delighted' The Times.

'The psychopathology of Brexit is at the heart of Fintan O'Toole's compact counterblast' Times Educational Supplement.

'A witty attack on the fantasies that drove Brexit ... Clever, over the top, but entertaining political writing' The Times, Books of the Year.

'Fintan O'Toole's searing polemic [is] expertly researched and full of unexpectedly funny vignettes' Sunday Business Post, Books of the Year.

'What gives this book its distinction is the fact that [O'Toole] is as adept at analysing character (as revealed by language) as he is at marshalling statistics ... O'Toole uncovers and dissects it with the deliberate, affectless skill of a virtuoso surgeon. The result, for me, is a wildly entertaining but uncomfortable read. In short, he has nailed us to the floor with a nine-inch nail. It's certainly not easy bein' English these days, and O'Toole, with this pitilessly brilliant book, has just made it at least fifty shades harder' Jonathan Coe, Irish Times.

'[The Euro] is what British conservative thought has feared since the 1970s. Readers interested in exploring these fears, and pretty much everyone else, should read [this]' Sunday Business Post.

'O'Toole offers a central, sexual metaphor for the fall, in which England alternately dominates and submits' Guardian.

'Britain's psychodrama, as Fintan O'Toole reminds us in his brilliant book, is almost entirely about its reaction to winning World War II, but losing its empire' Sunday Business Post.

'O'Toole has been one of the most astute commentators on Brexit, and here he offers his analysis on the forces in the English psyche that brought it about. Nor does he pull any punches ... He writes to devastating effect, his framing of Brexit as a "weird psychodrama" raising some uncomfortable questions' Herald.

'Fintan O'Toole [...] displays an amazing command of the facts, but what distinguishes his book is the quality of the mind at work, the sharpness of the analysis, the style. O'Toole even makes you feel sorry for the Brexit leaders and that is no small achievement' Colm Tóibín, Irish Independent, Books of the Year.