ELEMENTS OF WIT

Got wit? We’ve all been in that situation where we need to say something clever, but innocuous; smart enough to show some intelligence, without showing off; something funny, but not a joke.

What we need in that moment is wit—that sparkling combination of charm, humor, confidence, and most of all, the right words at the right time.

This engaging book brings together the greatest wits of our time, and previous ones from Oscar Wilde to Nora Ephron, Winston Churchill to Christopher Hitchens, Mae West to Louis CK, and many in between.

With chapters covering the essential ingredients of wit, this primer sheds light on how anyone—introverts, extroverts, wallflowers, and bon vivants—can find the right zinger, quip, parry, or retort…or at least be a little bit more interesting.

Ben Errett is the managing editor for features at the National Post, a Canadian national newspaper. He lives in Toronto.