A brilliantly varied new selection of D. H. Lawrence''s essays, chosen and introduced by Geoff Dyer

For D. H. Lawrence the novel was the pinnacle, ''the one bright book of life'', yet his non-fiction shows him at his most freewheeling and playful. This is a selection of his essays, on subjects including art, morality, obscenity, songbirds, Italy, Thomas Hardy, the death of a porcupine in the Rocky Mountains and the narcissism of photographing ourselves. Arranged chronologically to illuminate the patterns of Lawrence''s thought over time, and including many little-known pieces, they reveal a writer of enduring freshness and force.

''The greatest writer of this century, and in many things the greatest writer of all times'' Philip Larkin