...a book that will appeal to the aficionado as well as the proletariat, a highly readable documentation that balances the composer's achievements against the cultural institutions of the Belle Epoque. (Mark Tanner, Musical Opinion )
...a good read, but the book will also prove invaluable as a reference tool...fascinating...[an] important book (Richard Langham Smith, Open University )
Edward Blakeman...lucidly tells the story of this fascinating, important, and kindly man who influenced flute playing indelibly over the later decades of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth. This makes for a good read... [An] important book. (Richard Langham Smith, Music and Letters, Volume 88, Number 4 )