Dreaming after lunch

Snoozing after lunch is not a sign of laziness - rather it is an art form, an assertion of human liberty and independence in an increasingly globalised economy where time-sick wage slaves disobey their bodies' circadian clocks in the pursuit of ever more money.

In a series of high-flown philosophical vignettes, French academic Thierry Paquot marshals evidence from history, literature and art in support of the siesta and the reclamation of our own time away from the habitual and obligatory, and the demands of clock-watching employers.

With revolutionary fervour, Paquot calls upon us to seize the lost art of the siesta - an admirable and agreeable idea. Alas, he does not tell us how to go about this without risking instant dismissal.