Illuminating, insightful, informed, inspired, intelligent. These are words that could - and do - apply equally to book or author; in fact, The Revolt of the Pendulum, Clive James's latest essay collection, shows James at his most dazzling and versatile best yet. From the rules of grammar to the fundamentals of religion, from the culture of fandom to the cult of the critic, it's all there: his customary wit, learning and understanding; his precise way with words and pointed comments; his ear for language and eye for detail; his ability to focus on the finer points and the bigger picture simultaneously - not to mention the sheer scope of his subject matter.

Praise for Clive James:

`Lively, shrewd and resourceful, James's writing is impeccably fluent, flexible and urbane: parodies, jokes and slang sit comfortably with moral and political arguments, lightly-worn erudition and scrupulously close readings of poetry and prose' Sunday Telegraph

'Sober and skittish, learned and lewd, rhetorically rambunctious and epigrammatically concise; Clive James is an intellectual as well as a joker, a wise man as well as a wit' Observer