«This is the first full-length study in English of one of the most controversial and influential German writers in the last fifty years. Lawrie's book, based on extensive, research in British archives as well as textual analysis, focuses on Fried's formative years. It examines Fried's experience as an émigré in London during and after the war, and his development as a translator and poet up to the mid 1960s, from the 'exile perspective', and throws new light on the lot of German literary émigrés in Britain.» (Dr. Axel H. Goodbody, University of Bath)
«Erich Fried is a writer of substance. Steven Lawrie's critical study is the first full-length account in English of Fried's life and work, constituting a valuable contribution to the growing body of scholarly work on German-speaking exiles in Great Britain.» (Dr. Richard Dove, University of Greenwich)
«Steven Lawrie's study is particularly important for the light it casts on Fried's early years in exile in London and his work with other exiles there. Lawrie has also had access to research into the BBC archives and to Claassen correspondence and this illuminates Fried's later rise from isolated exile writer to literary fame as translator, prize-winning poet and literary activist.» (Professor James M. Ritchie, University of Aberdeen)