seeing as someone's decided to refresh this old thread, it's probably worth pointing out that the book was brought back into print by Faber, as part of their print-on-demand range.

It's a great book. I wouldn't even call it an "academic" book: it's certainly not written in any kind of jargon or cant, and it doesn't really on theory in any programmatic or doctrinaire way. Meaning that there's a strong sense of the writer's own personality in there.

More importantly, it's wholly unpretentious. Academic writing today almost always has a sense of the author's self-importance: the author has something to prove, or a school to establish.