In this book, Christopher Booker proposes an entirely new thesis about the nature of storytelling. From the 'Epic Of Gilgamesh' to 'Jaws', Booker shows that there are a number of basic themes which continually reappear in the storytelling of mankind, shaping tales of very different kinds and from almost every age and culture.
What is revolutionary about this book is that the author treats all kinds of storytelling on the same level. His material ranges from P G Wodehouse and The Marx Brothers to science fiction, from Sherlock Holmes to 'Four Weddings And A Funeral'. We find, at the end, that there is no kind of story which does not ultimately spring from the same source, which is not shaped by the same archetypal rules and stem from the same universal language.
Proust addicts are only one group of people who will never feel the same having read this book.
