- Richard Aldington - "Mr Hanley's work is important because he takes his themes and charcters from this hidden world of labour and suffering, and ruthlessly forces us to look at what man has done to man ... His object is to show us the world of commerce and industry as it affects the lives of the people who do the hard and dirty jobs. And these glimpses of that life he is giving us are the more effective for not being bound up with any propoganda. He says in effect : "This is the sort of life these people have to lead," and he leaves it to us, the privileged ones, to ask ourselves - What are we going to do about it?" ~ Forward to The Last Voyage (1931)
- John Cowper Powys - "It's great ! I really think it is different - in quality, texture, atmosphere, view point, art and purpose - from any other book I know. It's a wonderful thing to have done ... The character of the mother is a masterpiece and so - only second to her - is Mr Fury. I never recall reading of the mysterious and involved link between married people so proufoundly and touchingly portrayed. I was so sad when it came to an end ... The end is however magnificent, entirely satisfying." ~ Letter to James Hanley, November 1934, after reading a proof copy of The Furys.
- Anatole Broyard - "There are some writers who seem to have a private path into people's souls. They lead you there through unfamiliar streets; you don't recognise any landmarks. The journey is uncanny. And yet, when you have arrived, there is no question that you are there ... You are in the grip of an originality that bemuses you. James Hanley is such a writer." ~ from The New York Times.
- Times Literary Supplement - "A story of telling simplicity and power ... Mr Hanley surpasses anything he has done before. Every small incident speaks for itself, every intimation of strength of soul or human weakness is poignantly clear ... It is a short book, very still and sparing of words towards the close, deeply memorable from beginning to end. It is innocent alike of all heroics and of moral scepticism. The tribute is not so much to courage or leadership as to the impulses of the individual soul's responsibility." ~ Review of The Ocean (1941).
- And of Levine (1956) - "A novel that is brilliantly organised, compassionately and beautifully written ... it has a mounting intensity, a pitiless awareness of the details that turn a desirable proximity into a hateful one. Most of all, Levine deals, in a prose that is always finely balanced, with a crucial theme, one which Mt Hanley purses to a bitter, dramatic end, the incompatability between love and freedom."
~ The Times Literary Supplement."The dramatic forcefulness of Levine creates an impression so sharp that the feel of it lingers after the novel is read. This is James Hanley in his most realistic mood, a writer who reveals with a remarkable economy of phrase the pathos behind the horror of human tragedies of character and circumstance ... a powerful and moving book," ~ The Scotsman.
-
And finally, Paul Theroux - "E M Forster called James Hanley 'a novelist of distinction and originality'; Henry Green said he was superior to Conrad and many other accomplished writers have expressed a similar view. His books live happily in the memory of a dozen good and well-known novelists.Washington Post Review of Another World (1972).