Glorious… The stories are so beautifully rendered, so powerful

A fascinating study… Watling’s protagonists are flawed but brave, battling fascism with guts.

In her engrossing and impressive book, Sarah Watling looks at some of those women who went to war, not just to fight fascism or scratch the itch of adventure but also to show what women could do.

Provocative, compelling narratives of women on the front lines of fighting fascism… A powerful, moving cautionary tale for today.

Watling’s study marks her determination to write women into the history books… This is a serious, scholarly work, which also brings her group of writers, poets and activists vividly to life.

A brilliant, impassioned, and much-needed tribute to the women who used their art to fight fascism… Extraordinary and captivating.

Watling’s narrative, inserting vivid glimpses of the conflict to situate her shuffling of a deck of characters who themselves embodied complex and evolving ideas, is expertly balanced.

Fascinating… Sarah Watling brings alive with great vividness a small cast of disparate characters who travelled to Spain during the Civil War… Watling brings all these passionate characters together with great aplomb.

Watling deploys a wealth of firsthand testimony and archival materials, not in service of a conventional work of history but in an extended consideration of contemporary concerns.

In her exhilarating book, Sarah Watling follows a handful of brilliant intellectuals as they wrestle with the nature of duty in a morally complicated world.