Another absolute gem from Sarah Bakewell!

This is a short book, prepared for the Guardian Shorts series, and encapsulate the key elements of Sarah Bakewell's marvellous longer analysis of Montaigne's Essays, 'How to Live'. Bakewell has that happy gift of being able to capture the key aspects of complex issues and present them in a lucid, readily accessible format, without succumbing to the all too endemic plague of dumbing down.

Montaigne is an appealing character - relentlessly curious and continually exploring his own reaction s to different ideas. He more or less created the essay as a format, and four hundred and fifty years on, his work is enchanting new readers today. Sarah Bakewell has done him proud. This is a marvellous primer, but I would also recommend reading Bakewell's longer work, which is utterly delightful. ( )