The test of this kind of book is for the reader to be able to open it anywhere and be drawn into the argument; it's a test that Hitchens passes time and time again... He can be devilishly funny, but he is also capable of writing with acid seriousness. -- The Independent

1: Where Were You Standing? 2: On the Imagination of Conspiracy 3: Contempt for the Little Colony 4: The State Within the State 5: Voting in the Passive Voice 6: The Hate that Dare Not Speak Its Name 7: A Pundit Who Need Never Dine Alone 8: Hard on the Houseboy 9: New Orleans in a Brown Shirt 10: Rioting in Mount Pleasant 11: Billionaire Populism 12: The Clemency of Clinton 13: Clinton as Rhodesian 14: Bill's Bills in Miami 15: Realpolitik in the Gulf: A Game Gone Tilt 16: Churchillian Delusions 17: No End of a Lesson 18: Befriending the Kurds 19: Arise, Sir Norman 20: Jewish in Damascus 21: Songs Fit For Heroes 22: Hating Sweden 23: Squeezing Costa Rica 24: The Saviour 25: Tio Sam 26: The Autumn of Patriarch 27: Third Thoughts 28: Cretinismo Eroico 29: The Twilight of Panzerkommunismus 30: Police Mentality 31: On the Road to Timsoara 32: Bricks in the Wall 33: The Free Market Cargo Cult 34: Now Neo-conservatives Perish 35: Appointment in Sarajevo 36: 'Society' and Its Enemies 37: Credibility Politics: Sado-Monetarist Economics 38: Union Jackshirt: Ingham's Conservative Chic 39: Neil Kinnock: Defeat Without Honour 40: Bribing and Twisting 41: How's the Vampire? 42: Charlie's Angel 43: Unhappy Families 44: Princess of Dysfunction 45: New York Intellectuals and the Prophet Outcast 46: Clubland Intellectuals 47: The 'We' Fallacy 48: Shouting Anarchy 49: Politically Correct 50: Friend of Promise 51: Booze and Fags 52: Nixon: Maestro of Resentment 53: Kissinger: A Touch of Evil 54: Berlin's Mandate for Palestine 55: Ghoul of Calcutta 56: The Life of Johnson 57: A Grave Disappointment All Round 58: Too Big For His Boot 59: P.J. O'Rourke: Not Funny Enough 60: Not Funny Enough (2) 61: Warhol in One Dimension 62: Siding with Rushdie 63: Goya's Radical Pessimism 64: Degenerate Art 65: James Baldwin: Humanity First 66: Updike on the Make 67: P.G. Wodehouse in Love, Poverty and War 68: Greene: Where the Shadow Falls 69: Kazuo Ishiguro 70: Victor Serge 71: C.L.R James 72: In Defence of Daniel Deronda

Displays the intelligence, invective and stubborn common sense Mr Hitchens brings to his commentaries, be they about the political scene in Washington, the soap-opera travail of the British Royal family or a novel by George Eliot. * New York Times *Hitchens rejoices without inhibition in the pleasure of hating and knows that satire is murder by other means... A pen like this is more lethal than most swords. * The Observer *The fiercely independent-minded Hitchens provides reams of fuel for intellectual conflagration, couched in the luxurious excess of humour... progressive journalism as it was meant to be. * The Nation *The test of this kind of book is for the reader to be able to open it anywhere and be drawn into the argument; it's a test that Hitchens passes time and time again... He can be devilishly funny, but he is also capable of writing with acid seriousness. * Independent on Sunday *

A classic Hitchens renewed in trade paperback. "The test of this kind of book is for the reader to be able to open it anywhere and be drawn into the argument; it's a test that Hitchens passes time and time again... He can be devilishly funny, but he is also capable of writing with acid seriousness." The Independent