As a whole, however, it confirms the validity of the mass market magazine as a vessel for excellent writing a defence of the popular polemic. The breadth of the sources, and the disparate nature of the subject matter (from elections in Afghanistan to the all-American blowjob, handily taken from the magazine that first published Deep Throat’s identity, Vanity Fair), occasionally make it seem scraped together and without a narrative or clear progression of ideas. That argument forms the most considerable collection of his work to date, a selection of magazine pieces taken from Vanity Fair, Slate and The Atlantic. Even the jacket image, of a starkly cancerous Hitchens facing down the reader, gives the impression of a man on the cusp of a monumental argument. The will, the need, and, most importantly, the ability, to argue. In a text which twists vicariously, dangerously, between iconoclastic highs and the occasional blasphemous low, argument is perhaps the sole consistency. Nor does he, nor has he over the course of a dozen books of which the most recent are the best selling God is not Great and Hitch-22, and hundreds of articles of which the cream of the crop is here.In an essay on John Updike’s Due Considerations that forms part of this book, Christopher Hitchens says that ‘the elements of this collection fully justify the rather modest promise offered by the title.’ Something similar could be said of Arguably, although the word ‘modest’ may lose a degree of relevance in the transition. 'Don't mince words' is the title of one of these pieces. Issues from Vietnam to Iraq, Afghanistan to Iran and literary musings on the leading writers of the last fifty years form the richest tapestry a reader could ask.

World figures from Clinton to Mother Teresa, Kissinger to Benazir Bhutto go under his unforgiving microscope.

From early articles in the New Statesman where he worked alongside writers such as Ian McEwan and Martin Amis, through to his pieces for Salon, The Atlantic and Vanity Fair, these articles display his rare genius, indomitable wit and singular command of language.

This volume of essays spans a remarkable four decades of writing. Christopher Hitchens is possibly the most provocative writer of our time, fearless and forthright with no subject off limits. He raises hackles or receives resounding cheers, he's loved or hated but never ignored.

Arguably by Christopher Hitchens