Why you have to read Theodore Dalrymple

Here are three reasons why I like Theodore Dalrymple, and why he is probably my favourite non-fiction writer. Every time I read one of his essays, I normally:

1. Learn something about culture
2. Learn something about history
3. Learn something about the English language

And that is quite apart from having understood what he is trying to say about what is normally a current topic not particularly focused on providing any of the above. There are not many other non-fiction writers writing about current topics -- in fact, I can't think of any -- who provide the same.

For someone of my own generation, for whom there seems to have been an institutional interest in diverting our attention away from all three of those things, he is required reading.

Here is a link to his latest essay on inflation.