Allen & Unwin Thrown Under the Omnibus book English 864 pages

Handpicked and introduced by the humourist himself, Thrown Under the Omnibus is the essential P.J. O Rourke anthology - a must-have for all fans.

'Whether you agree with him or not, P.J. writes a helluva piece.' - Richard NixonP.J. O Rourke has had a prolific career as one of America's most celebrated humourists. But that career almost didn't happen. As he tells it, 'I began to write for pay in the spring of 1970. To tell the truth I didn't even mean to be a writer, I meant to be a race car driver, but I didn't have a race car.'Fortunately for us, he had to settle for writing. From his early pieces for the National Lampoon ('How to Drive fast on Drugs While Getting Your Wing- Wang Squeezed and Not Spill Your Drink'), through his classic reporting as Rolling Stone's International Affairs editor in the 80s and 90s ('Among the Euroweenies'), and his brilliant, inimitable political journalism and analysis (Parliament of Whores, Give War a Chance, Eat the Rich), P.J. has been entertaining and provoking readers with high octane prose, a gonzo Republican attitude and a rare ability to make you laugh out loud while silently reading to yourself.For the first time Thrown Under the Omnibus brings together his funniest, most outrageous, most controversial and most-loved pieces in the definitive P.J. reader.

P. J. O'Rourke has written sixteen books on subjects as diverse as politics and cars and etiquette and economics. His book about Washington, Parliament of Whores, and his book about international conflict and crisis, Give War a Chance, both reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list. He is a contributing editor at the Weekly Standard, H. L. Mencken fellow at the Cato Institute, a regular panelist on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, and a columnist for the Daily Beast. He lives in rural New England, as far away from the things he writes about as he can get.