The essay is one of the richest of literary forms. Its most obvious characteristics are freedom, informality and the personal touch - though it can also find room for poetry, satire, fantasy and sustained argument. All these qualities, and many others, are on display in this volume. A wide-ranging collection, it includes 140 essays by 120 writers: classics, curiosities, meditations, diversions, old favourites, and recent examples felt to deserve being better known. A particular feature is the amount of space allotted to American essayists, from Benjamin Franklin to John Updike and beyond. The anthology opens with comments on the nature of truth and closes with a consideration of the novels of Judith Krantz. Some of the other topics discussed in its pages are anger, pleasure, Gandhi, Beau Brummell, wasps, party-going, gangsters, plumbers, Beethoven, potato crisps, the importance of being the right size, and the demolition of Westminster Abbey.