Do the arts make us better people? Are they a sign of civilization? Why should ‘high’ be thought higher than ‘low’? Are judgements about art anything more than personal opinions? What are works of art anyway – do they belong to some special, sacred category? Can the brain-scientists who are investigating the arts tell us anything useful about them? In the first part of his new book John Carey returns startling answers to these and related questions. In the second part he makes out a self-confessedly personal and subjective case for the superiority of literature to all other arts.

From one of the country’s most eminent reviewers and academics, this is a delightfully sceptical and devastatingly intelligent assessment of the true value of art.