The essay is one of the richest, most imaginative, and most eloquent literary form. This anthology contains some 140 essays by all the leading exponents of the genre.

John Gross is the author of The Rise and Fall of the Man of Letters (1973) and editor of The Oxford Book of Aphorisms (1983) and The Oxford Book of Literary Anecdotes (2006), among other publications. He was editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 1974 to 1981, and is currently theatre critic of the Sunday Telegraph.