‘Nick Ascroft’s Moral Sloth is among other things a virtuoso display of formal skills. He does a particularly classy line in sonnets. He can rhyme as tellingly as Alexander Pope or the Byron of Don Juan – and can match those poets in quickness of thought and even (it seems to me) outstrip them in richness of diction.’—Bill Manhire

'The sharp focus of Moral Sloth defines Ascroft as a brillinat poet, linguist and wit.' —Cilla McQueen

'The poems are simultaneously humorous and serious. Underlying their humour is a struggle with morality, faith, truth, art, agency, and social responsibility.' —Rachel Lewis, NZ Poetry Society