Charles Saatchi has a black wit that has served him in good stead. His latest book release titled DEAD: A Celebration of Mortality re-enforces this characteristic.

Cleverly designed to resemble a tombstone – with its marble edge-stain and engraved gold lettering – the book contains 52 brief essays. Saatchi’s tales span far and wide, from the Russian Mafia to being run over by your own dog and laughing yourself into a heart attack. There’s also a particularly dry take on Attila the Hun, a man who, after inflicting violent death on so many, himself died of nothing more brutal than a nose bleed. Irony.

Saatchi’s wicked sense of humour always makes for a great read, just look at his first book My Name Is Charles Saatchi and I Am An Artoholic (2009), in which he delivered brutally frank answers to questions from journalists, critics and members of the public.

If you share Saatchi’s wit and morbid obsession, this will certainly entertain. His closing paragraph sums up his attitude,

“Some lives leave a mark, others leave a stain. Almost everyone lives a life of little consequence to mankind. But wouldn’t you prefer to have spent your years rather uselessly but entertainingly – even if your existence didn’t achieve anything memorably significant at all?”

It’s Nietzsche, with a fun streak.

DEAD: A Celebration of Mortality is out now via Booth-Clibborn Editions