We received a message today from Monday Books publisher Dan Collins, informing us that they will re-publish If Symptoms Persist and If Symptoms Still Persist, the collections of Dalrymple's first Spectator columns. The two will be combined into a single book. As Dan explains in this blog entry, an e-book version will go on sale early next week on Amazon.com, with a hard copy available sometime in 2011.

This is good news for Dalrymple admirers, as the books have been out of print for many years. This description from the aforementioned blog is entirely accurate: "Short, bittersweet pieces, sometimes very funny, sometimes very depressing, always beautifully written". Trust me: you will be unable to read some of these without laughing out loud. The columns also mark the birth of "Theodore Dalrymple", as they were the first instance of his use of that nom de plume.

Do be sure to read Dan's blog entry, as it contains one of the included columns.