A collection of eighteen essays by the author of Nineteen Eighty Four and Animal Farm, etc. these represent the last of his finished work. There is excellent reading here, whether it be the title piece on the English colonial attitude, or his thoughts on books, poetry, cigarettes, a report on a hanging and a death, reflections on Gandhi, a toad, English murder, and other assorted topics, and in the field of the essay this provides fine style as well as stimulating thinking. For the selective reader as well as his established followers.