I'm Director of the Centre for Policy Studies, Editor-in-Chief of CapX, columnist at The Sunday Times, and author of 'The Great Acceleration', a book about how technology is speeding up the pace of life and the impact that's having. ('A must-read' - Steve Hilton. 'Punchy and wide-ranging' - Tim Harford. 'Indispensable' - Boris Johnson. 'As fast-paced as its subject matter' - Mark Lynas. 'Really an excellent book' - Daniel Finkelstein.)
You can buy a copy here, or get more details here. To find out more about me, or how to get in touch, see my author page. For the latest news, follow me on Twitter.
Yes, at long, long last, 'The Great Acceleration' is on sale in the UK and Ireland. Fingers crossed that it races off the shelves...
We had the launch party last night at the wonderful Daunt Books in Marylebone High Street - many thanks to all those who came. I'll be doing my best to promote the book in as many places as possible, so if you're interested in having me come and speak, do drop me a line.
(Pictures by Kat Brown & the author)
It's a week to go until 'The Great Acceleration' hits the shops, and it's already getting some encouraging attention.
It started last Monday with an appearance on 'Start the Week' with Andrew Marr to discuss whether faster really is better - you can listen to the episode again online, or download the podcast. I also went on Jo Good's show on BBC Radio London to talk about the pressures of city living.
The book's also been the subject of a news story in the Times, which was picked up by the Mail. Rosie Millard wrote about my thesis in the final print edition of the Independent - and I appeared in the Sunday Times news review to explain why life really is getting faster.
The scariest thing, however, was the appearance of the first review - by Daniel Finkelstein in the Times. Luckily for me, he loved it, calling the book 'excellent' and saying: 'It’s rare to go for a whole paragraph of this book without learning something unexpected, funny or disturbing.' The Times also made it their book of the week.
I mention all this not to boast (well, a little), nor to persuade you to buy the book (well, actually...). It's more that I've spent several years wrestling with these ideas, hoping that other people would find them even half as fascinating as I did. It's really, really gratifying that they seem to be doing so.
If you want to find out what the fuss is about, you can pre-order the book via the box elsewhere on the page, or via this link
UPDATE: The episode's now been aired. You can listen again here
I'll be appearing on 'Start the Week' with Andrew Marr tomorrow morning, in the first stage of the publicity campaign for 'The Great Acceleration'. The topic is 'Is Faster Better?', and the panel includes Carl Honoré (author of 'In Praise of Slow' and 'The Slow Fix'), Prof Steve Jones (veteran science writer and author of 'No Need for Geniuses', about scientists and the French Revolution) and Sarah Dunant (author, critic and general literary/historical expert).
This is, obviously, mildly terrifying, but I'm looking forward to the discussion. I also gave my first talk about the book over the weekend, at the Cambridge Union - it was part of 'ThinkCon', which in turn was part of the Cambridge Science Festival. There was a decent, interested crowd and I hope I made some interesting points. I also sold my very first copy of the book. To my brother-in-law. Baby steps, eh?
