Sam Leith is a former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and contributes regularly to the Evening Standard, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Prospect. He's the author of two nonfiction books: Dead Pets and Sod's Law and a novel, The Coincidence Engine.

Reading this book is the equivalent of lounging in a leather club armchair, wreathed in cigar smoke and a couple of whiskies down, alongside a companion who's being funny and clever about Homer and Hello! magazine by turns. -- Charlotte Higgins Guardian Entertaining ... You finish this book more than ready to rock a first in rhetoric. -- Hermione Eyre Evening Standard This is the best available analysis -- Boris Johnson Witty and revealing ... the chapter on Arrangement alone would probably bump up most student degrees by a class, not to mention the average oration -- James McConnachie Sunday Times Leith gives modern relevance to an ancient practice. Read this entertaining and instructive book and you will never again mistake an occultatio for an occupatio. -- Ian Finlayson The Times

Sam Leith is a former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and contributes regularly to the Evening Standard, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Prospect. He's the author of two nonfiction books: Dead Pets and Sod's Law and a novel, The Coincidence Engine.

Reading this book is the equivalent of lounging in a leather club armchair, wreathed in cigar smoke and a couple of whiskies down, alongside a companion who's being funny and clever about Homer and Hello! magazine by turns. -- Charlotte Higgins Guardian Entertaining ... You finish this book more than ready to rock a first in rhetoric. -- Hermione Eyre Evening Standard This is the best available analysis -- Boris Johnson Witty and revealing ... the chapter on Arrangement alone would probably bump up most student degrees by a class, not to mention the average oration -- James McConnachie Sunday Times Leith gives modern relevance to an ancient practice. Read this entertaining and instructive book and you will never again mistake an occultatio for an occupatio. -- Ian Finlayson The Times

Sam Leith is a former Literary Editor of the Daily Telegraph, and contributes regularly to the Evening Standard, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Spectator and Prospect. He's the author of two nonfiction books: Dead Pets and Sod's Law and a novel, The Coincidence Engine.

Reading this book is the equivalent of lounging in a leather club armchair, wreathed in cigar smoke and a couple of whiskies down, alongside a companion who's being funny and clever about Homer and Hello! magazine by turns. -- Charlotte Higgins Guardian Entertaining ... You finish this book more than ready to rock a first in rhetoric. -- Hermione Eyre Evening Standard This is the best available analysis -- Boris Johnson Witty and revealing ... the chapter on Arrangement alone would probably bump up most student degrees by a class, not to mention the average oration -- James McConnachie Sunday Times Leith gives modern relevance to an ancient practice. Read this entertaining and instructive book and you will never again mistake an occultatio for an occupatio. -- Ian Finlayson The Times