Vade Mecum brings together Richard Skinners best essays,reviews and interviews from 1992-2014. There are close critical engagements with writers (Kazuo Ishiguro, Italo Calvino, Shakespeares The Tempest) and composers (Erik Satie, Iannis Xenakis, Luc Ferrari), meditations on films and filmmakers (Antonioni, Krzysztof KieÅlowski, Chinatown) and idiosyncratic reflections on Werner Herzogs Of Walking in Ice and Steely Dan.

Richard Skinner is the author of three novels, all published by Faber& Faber. His work has been nominated for prizes and published in seven languages. He has written reviews and features for the Guardian, Financial Times, Sunday Times and Sight& Sound. He is Director of the Fiction Programme and tutor at the Faber Academy.