Description
Book SynopsisTravelling to the hard-living Dylan Thomas's Boathouse in Laugharne, Wales, psychiatrist Theodore Dalrymple considered along the way another foible - the folly of eminent people. Praised for their attainments in one area, high-achievers are more often than not prone to unexpected failings elsewhere. Enter a large cast of anti- and vivisectionists, surgeons, theologians, philosophers, admirals, judges, astrophysicists, Nazi-leaning homoeopaths, and writers such as D.H. Lawrence, Aldous Huxley, P.G. Wodehouse, and Conan Doyle. In his pithy and amusing style, Dalrymple casts a sobering light on an insuppressible trait of ours - the fallibility of the human mind.
Trade Review‘Moves from the elegiac to the entertainingly ruthless in a single paragraph.’ The Oldie: ‘Characteristic acuity about human nature.’ Catholic Herald: 'One of our most celebrated essayists.' Mail on Sunday
Table of Contents1 Everywhere is Interesting - `I've been to England' 2 Natural Selection - The Staffordshire Bull Terrier 3 Shame - A Most Democratic Institution 4 Pain in the Room - Shocking Pink 5 Bullying - Guinea Pigs 6 Heredity - Twisting Round a Stick 7 Insanity - Paler in the Shade 8 Religion - Strange Positions 9 Free Will - Headless Frogs 10 Respect - Our Own Book 11 Change - A Pugilist at Work 12 Love - Chien professeur 13 Suffering - Drought and Leanness 14 `I feel it more' - D.H. Lawrence 15 Politics - Trinidadian Oranges 16 Causality - Kindred Delusions 17 Siren Questions - Delia Bacon 18 Coincidences - Oversmoking 19 Metaphysics - More Moral Children 20 Genius - The Indoor Aquarium 21 Goodness - The Conquest of Britain 22 Truth - Criticism that Truly Stings 23 Consciousness - `I say, Jeeves' 24 Excess - Holy Fools 25 Roles - Dylan Thomas 26 Hellfire
