Essays in Life is a ion of thirty-two pieces, all but nine of which, in earlier versions, have been previously published in on-line media. The range of subjects is wide - from Shakespeare, Jane Austen and Italo Calvino, to politics, economics, immigration, social and political injustice, religion, democracy and freedom. In Memoriam - the concluding essay - is a personal account of friendship and loss.The author's aim in presenting these pieces is no different from that of the Spanish poet and essayist Juan Gil-Albert (1904 ? 1994): ?I write to clarify what I think, and offer these words in the hope that they may be of use to others.?