How To Be Right
... in a world gone wrong
Published on 1. November 2018
Book
Hardback
240 pages
978-0-7535-5309-1 (ISBN)
Description
The runaway Sunday Times bestseller by one of the most incisive broadcasters around.
Every day, James O'Brien listens to people blaming benefits scroungers, the EU, Muslims, feminists and immigrants. But what makes James's daily LBC show such essential listening - and has made James a standout social media star - is the careful way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning.
In the bestselling How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with faulty opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards.
If you ever get cornered by ardent Brexiteers, Daily Mail disciples or little England patriots, this book is your conversation survival guide.
'I have had a ringside seat as a significant swathe of the British population was persuaded that their failures were the fault of foreigners, that unisex lavatories threatened their peace of mind and that 'all Muslims' must somehow apologise for terror attacks by extremists. I have tried to dissuade them and sometimes succeeded... The challenge is to distinguish sharply between the people who told lies and the people whose only offence was to believe them.'
- James O'Brien
Every day, James O'Brien listens to people blaming benefits scroungers, the EU, Muslims, feminists and immigrants. But what makes James's daily LBC show such essential listening - and has made James a standout social media star - is the careful way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning.
In the bestselling How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with faulty opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards.
If you ever get cornered by ardent Brexiteers, Daily Mail disciples or little England patriots, this book is your conversation survival guide.
'I have had a ringside seat as a significant swathe of the British population was persuaded that their failures were the fault of foreigners, that unisex lavatories threatened their peace of mind and that 'all Muslims' must somehow apologise for terror attacks by extremists. I have tried to dissuade them and sometimes succeeded... The challenge is to distinguish sharply between the people who told lies and the people whose only offence was to believe them.'
- James O'Brien
Reviews / Votes
O'Brien is an exceptional broadcaster with a peerless ability to calmly point out the absurdity of certain viewpoints, a quality which similarly runs through this book ... provides a much-needed examination of the blustering rhetoric of politicians and media pundits, and brings a sliver of comfort to readers that they are not alone in their despair. -- The Guardian O'Brien is an exceptional broadcaster with a peerless ability to calmly point out the absurdity of certain viewpoints, a quality which similarly runs through this book ... provides a much-needed examination of the blustering rhetoric of politicians and media pundits, and brings a sliver of comfort to readers that they are not alone in their despair. -- The Guardian James O'Brien has become the conscience of liberal Britain * New Statesman * Almost indecently enjoyable -- Robert Webb I know few broadcasters as consistently, forensically, brilliant as James O' Brien. Here, he shows us -- with empathy, edge and exquisite comedy -- how it happens -- Emily Maitlis In the age of the tweet, such verbal ability increasingly seems like a superpower * The Times * A simply brilliant read ... I love this book! -- Jamie Oliver A total joy. If you feel like the world is going to hell in a handcart, here's the brakes -- Caitlin Moran This book is required reading to slice through the rhetoric, slogans & bluster of politics and politicians. James is the broadcaster we need right now, setting the world to rights one call at a time -- Susanna Reid Funny, clever and alarming ... a modern day travelogue through the airwaves with all the mistrust, misinformation, contradictions and manipulation laid bare -- Krishnan Guru-Murthy Intelligent, funny and worrying. An unsurprisingly brilliant read from a great broadcaster. I vehemently wish that everyone would read it. The World and this country would be a better place if they did. -- Gary Lineker Funny, wise and passionate. Like Yoda with better grammar. -- Danny Wallace I am stupidly excited about this book -- The Secret Barrister This book made me smarter. And it made me laugh and nod my head, all the while thinking 'bloody hell, I wish I could argue like James'. Cogent, necessary, insightful and often very funny. -- Elizabeth DayMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Ebury Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
361 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-7535-5309-1 (9780753553091)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
11/2018
1st Edition
Virgin Digital
€10.99
Available for download
Person
James O'Brien is an award-winning writer and broadcaster whose journalism has appeared everywhere from the TLS to the Daily Mirror. His daily current affairs programme on LBC has over 1.2 million weekly listeners and his first book, How To Be Right, was a Sunday Times bestseller, which won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Political Book by a non-politician. He is often to be found on Twitter trying not to get into arguments unless absolutely necessary.