Black & White And Read All Over

Like a well-delivered punch line, Black and White and Read All Over, the tenth book by award-winning writer Arthur Black, is guaranteed to make you laugh. The beloved radio personality and newspaper columnist tackles a range of subjects from Sasquatch hunters to nose jobs to the legalisation of pot. Known for his delight in the bizarre and derision of the absurd, Black holds nothing back as he comments on the caprices of a society in which people can leave a legacy by naming bugs after themselves, coffee beans initially 'processed' by small Indonesian marsupials sell for $110 US a pound in San Francisco, and gambling and fitness machines have combined so "all those casino addicts steadfastly clutching the plastic buckets of quarters and loonies now have a chance to lose pounds as they lose their money." In his trademark style, Black introduces readers to a colourful cast of characters, including a rock-and-roll critic en route to her 60th high school reunion, a paralysed author who wrote an entire novel by moving his left eye to indicate letters of the alphabet, and a Canadian senator who delivered a speech lasting 44 hours ("asking a politician to speak for five minutes is like expecting a great white shark to eat with a dessert spoon"). Black believes that "life, when you think of it, is really a series of accidents all strung together like a necklace fashioned by a drunkard." Dip into Black and White and Read All Over, and you'll see why.