To refer to his essay work, Chesterton used to say that he was a simple "jocular journalist" who wrote short weekly articles on funny subjects, and on one occasion when an admirer approached him to tell him that he seemed to know a lot of things, he answered curtly: «Madame, I do not know anything, I'm a journalist». The modesty of the writer ended up persuading many of his contemporaries, among them Auden, who only discovered the value of Chesterton's essays when they commissioned the selection that the reader has in his hands. In it, the English poet brings together the texts of Chesterton that seemed as pleasant and sharp as his journalistic pieces, but much more substantial and penetrating, and gives us an excellent opportunity to discover or re-read one of the most lucid and brilliant writers of the first half of the last century.