Quintessential Pleasures: Reflections on the Simple Joys of Life

"Far from the madding crowd's ignoble strife" there is a landscape of simple pleasures: a place of tranquil refreshment, unexpected delight and fulfilment. It is this, our true heartland, that is celebrated in these pages. Sunday strolls - and afternoon naps. Friendship - and the bliss of solitude. Music - and reading. The seasons. Sun, sea and sand. Pets and picnics. Poets and writers from Homer to Wordsworth, from Jane Austen to Katherine Mansfield, have expressed these delicious experiences, in passages that are here seamlessly interwoven with great works from the Metropolitan Museum of Art - Renoir's "Two Young Girls at the Piano", Bruegel's "The Harvesters", Fragonard's "The Love Letter" - to create a melody of contentment and repose.