On

Hilaire Belloc wrote about the world as though conversation were still an art. This collection gathers his short pieces on subjects so varied they defy categorization: bad verse and better sailing, the terrors of mathematics and the pleasures of a well-made hat. He writes with the confidence of a man who believes nothing is too small for scrutiny and nothing too large for a digression. What emerges is a portrait of a mind in perpetual motion, one that finds profound absurdities in everyday life and refuses to take anything entirely seriously, least of all himself. For readers who cherish the English essay at its most conversational and eccentric, this collection offers the pleasure of spending time with a writer who considered wit essential to truth.