<p>From a carcass competition in the Karoo to a shambolic murder trial in Cape Town, William Dicey's essays freewheel across an open terrain of interests. Dicey is curious and inventive, weaving strands of essay, journalism, fiction and self-reportage into something uniquely his own.<br>Mongrel investigates a range of topics – radical environmentalism, the fault lines between farmer and farm worker, the joys and sorrows of reading – yet drifts of concern and sensibility draw the collection together. Several essays touch on how books can move, and sometimes maul, their readers.<br>Mongrel is idiosyncratic, witty, potent.</p>