Funny, wise, idiosyncratic and original, these occasional essays chart a course through the various genres of writing that Peter Goldsworthy has investigated- fiction, science fiction, poetry, opera and film. Spiced with often hilarious personal anecdotes and references to the wide-ranging reading of a self-confessed 'hick autodidact', Goldsworthy offers a book that is at once a writing manual for various literary disciplines, and a loose, extended exploration of his key themes and obsessions- death, humour, the limits of language, the relationship of biology to thought and culture, and the role and responsibilities of art. And first love also gets a look in . . . 'A rare intelligence, combining a scientific and poetic appreciation of life, each expressed with great elegance and love of language.' The Sunday Age