Compton Mackenzie according to Andro Linklater

(...) It is fruitless to wish that he had devoted himself to these strenghts and been less prone to distraction and extravagance. He had almost every gift that a great writer requires except the belief that writing is of supreme importance. (...) writing was never an end in itself. (...) However wrong it may be to compare a man's life to a work of art, the comparison is difficult to avoid in the case of Compton Mackenzie. In the quixotic, extravagant performance of his own life he achieved his real masterpiece.