This wonderful collection of essays by V.S. Naipul features pieces taken from his earlier books - The Overcrowded Barracoon, The Return of Eva Peron and Finding the Centre - and also includes several previously uncollected essays. Concentrating mainly on V.S. Naipaul's writings about India, the Americas, Africa and the Diaspora, it is a clear-eyed and magnificent introduction to the writer's extraordinary world.

'How few writers there are, if any, who share his sense of mission and moral authority, who have his willingness to learn and to travel and his miraculous gift of language. Is there no one who could persuade him to go on one last journey?' Observer

'As these essays lavishly demonstrate, he is a true citizen of the world, and he richly deserves the Nobel prize he was awarded last year' Scotland on Sunday