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Reading lists

Books and resources to help you navigate the 2024 UK general election 

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Audiobooks to help you understand other people

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Extracts

James O’Brien on why the ‘nanny state’ is nonsense

The Art of Changing Your Mind

How Not To Be Wrong

James O’Brien – bestselling author, radio and podcast sensation, twitter phenomenon – answers the question he is asked more than any other: ‘what have you changed you mind about?’ Why all of us must kick the tyres of our opinions, check our assumptions and make sure we really think what we think we do.

'Simply Brilliant' THE SECRET BARRISTER 
'Passionate and brilliantly argued' DAVID OLUSOGA 
'An admirably personal guide' MARINA HYDE 
'Smart, analytical, self-aware and important' ALASTAIR CAMPBELL 
 
THE INTIMATE, REVEALING NEW BOOK FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE BESTSELLING, PRIZE-WINNING HOW TO BE RIGHT 
 
 There's no point having a mind if you're not willing to change it 
 
 James O'Brien has built well over a million loyal listeners to his radio show by dissecting the opinions of callers live on air, every day. But winning the argument doesn't necessarily mean you're right. 
 
 In this deeply personal book, James turns the mirror on himself to reveal what he has changed his mind about and why, and explores how examining and changing our own views is our new civic duty in a world of outrage, disagreement and echo chambers. He writes candidly about the stiff upper lip attitudes and toxic masculinity that coloured his childhood, and the therapy and personal growth that have led him question his assumptions and explore new perspectives. Laying open his personal views on everything from racial prejudice to emotional vulnerability, from fat-shaming to tattoos, he then delves into the real reasons -- often irrational or unconscious -- he holds them. 
 
 Unflinchingly honest, revealing and funny, How Not to Be Wrong is a tonic for a world more divided than ever and a personal manifesto for a better way of thinking and living. 
 
 Because after all, if we can't change our own minds we'll never really be able to change anyone else's.

A model of lucidity, humour and humanity - we should be thankful that we have him

Simply brilliant ... Its calm but brutal honesty makes for compelling reading. This book is needed now more than ever

James is more right than ever -- particularly in our entrenched, binary thinking culture -- about the importance of being able to admit to being wrong

An admirably personal guide to the lost art of changing your mind. James showed me how often a change of mind is really a change of heart

Highly personal and confessional, yet also a passionate and brilliantly argued appeal against the dangerous tribalism of our times

Classic James O'Brien - smart, analytical, self-aware and important to public debate at a time the toffs in power are taking it into the sewer

I know few broadcasters as consistently, forensically, brilliant as James O'Brien

Blending profound self-reflection with genuine warmth... the perfect book for a loud world that seems more divided than ever

Such verbal ability seems like a superpower

An exceptional broadcaster with a peerless ability to calmly point out the absurdity of certain viewpoints

Disarmingly honest about where he has been wrong, this book is a refreshing reminder of our ability to change our minds

Far and away the best thing he has ever written -- indeed, a kind of deconstruction of everything he has written and said, or at least propounded. A series of reflections on various topical themes that doubles as a memoir, almost a mea culpa, about the psychological origin of his opinions, and of the force and certitude with which he used to wield them.

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 is the most popular talk show on commercial radio with over 1.4 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.

There's no point having a mind if you're not willing to change it 
 
James O'Brien has built well over a million loyal listeners to his radio show by dissecting the opinions of callers live on air, every day. But winning the argument doesn't necessarily mean you're right. 
 
In this deeply personal book, James turns the mirror on himself to reveal what he has changed his mind about and why, and explore how examining and changing our own views is our new civic duty in a world of outrage, disagreement and echo chambers. He writes candidly about the stiff upper lip attitudes and toxic masculinity that coloured his childhood, and the therapy and personal growth that have led him question his assumptions and explore new perspectives. Laying open his personal views on everything from racial prejudice to emotional vulnerability, from fat-shaming to tattoos, he then delves into the real reasons - often irrational or unconscious - he holds them. 
 
Unflinchingly honest, revealing and funny, How Not to Be Wrong is a tonic for a world more divided than ever and a personal manifesto for a better way of thinking and living. 
 
Because after all, if we can't change our own minds we'll never really be able to change anyone else's.

… in a world gone wrong

How To Be Right

James O’Brien – runaway talk show sensation – with a provocative guide to dismantling small minds and conquering prejudice.

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.

James O’Brien has become the conscience of liberal Britain

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

In the age of the tweet, such verbal ability increasingly seems like a superpower

A simply brilliant read ... I love this book!

A total joy. If you feel like the world is going to hell in a handcart, here's the brakes

This book is required reading to slice through the rhetoric, slogans &amp; bluster of politics and politicians. James is the broadcaster we need right now, setting the world to rights one call at a time

Funny, clever and alarming ... a modern day travelogue through the airwaves with all the mistrust, misinformation, contradictions and manipulation laid bare

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.

Funny, wise and passionate. Like Yoda with better grammar.

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.

The oral equivalent of Greco-Roman wrestling

Generous, severe, principled, eloquent and righteous.

James O'Brien is the epitome of a smug, sanctimonious, condescending, obsessively politically-correct, champagne-socialist public schoolboy Remoaner

The voice of reason in a world that won’t shut up. 
 
The Sunday Times Bestseller 
Winner of the Parliamentary Book Awards 
 
Every day, James O’Brien listens to people blaming hard-working immigrants for stealing their jobs while scrounging benefits, and pointing their fingers at the EU and feminists for destroying Britain. But what makes James’s daily LBC show such essential listening – and has made James a standout social media star – is the incisive 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 unchallenged 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 corporate cronies, this book is your conversation survival guide.

James O'Brien

How They Broke Britain made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb work

A damning account of how the country ended up in the current mess . . . O&rsquo;Brien&rsquo;s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power in Britain

The most important political book of the year and a fascinating must-read for anyone who cares about Britain. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, heart-breaking

O'Brien is a punchy and compelling writer. The book is fluent, engaging and thoroughly researched . . . O'Brien eviscerates all of his targets

A compelling, thought-provoking and illuminating read. O’Brien doesn’t hold any punches . . . It is a book that will make you gasp in shock, shake your head in bewilderment and wonder how any of this was allowed to take place in 21st-century Britain

[A] brilliant exposé of those who deliberately turned a once admired country into an economically poorer, lamentable parody of its former self: the Brexiteer neoliberal right, their Tory MPs, journalists and think tanks who inflicted such massive self-harm

O'Brien's new book confirms that not only are our politicians and their backers as corrupt and incompetent as you suspected they were, it's actually worse than that. And it's packed full of facts about Brexit, Think Tanks and Tory sleaze that will help you win argument after argument with your irritating relatives

It’s essential. It should make you angry. Fuming

Intelligent, forensic, devastating and shocking – How They broke Britain is as terrifying as it is brilliant

***THE RUNAWAY BESTSELLER, WITH NEW MATERIAL FOR THE PAPERBACK*** 
 
THE REVEALING, DEFINING ACCOUNT OF THE DARK NETWORK THAT BROKE OUR COUNTRY. 
 
Something has gone really wrong in Britain. 
 
Our economy has tanked, our freedoms are shrinking, and social divisions are growing. Our politicians seem most interested in their own careers, and much of the media only make things worse. We are living in a country almost unrecognisable from the one that existed a decade ago. But whose fault is it really? Who broke Britain and how did they do it? 
 
Bold and incisive as ever, James O'Brien reveals the shady network of influence that has created a broken Britain of strikes, shortages and scandals. He maps the web connecting dark think tanks to Downing Street, the journalists involved in selling it to the public and the media bosses pushing their own agendas. Over ten chapters, each focusing on a particular person complicit in the downfall, James O'Brien reveals how a select few have conspired - sometimes by incompetence, sometimes by design - to bring Britain to its knees.

James O'Brien

Praise for How They Broke Britain

How They Broke Britain made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb work

A damning account of how the country ended up in the current mess . . . O’Brien’s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power ...

The most important political book of the year and a fascinating must-read for anyone who cares about Britain. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, heart-breaking

How They Broke Britain made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb work

A damning account of how the country ended up in the current mess . . . O’Brien’s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power ...

The most important political book of the year and a fascinating must-read for anyone who cares about Britain. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, heart-breaking

How They Broke Britain made me so angry I had to stop listening to it while driving. Superb work

A damning account of how the country ended up in the current mess . . . O’Brien’s scathing voice provides a thorough record of the self-serving actions and pronouncements of those who have held power ...

The most important political book of the year and a fascinating must-read for anyone who cares about Britain. Eye-opening, jaw-dropping, heart-breaking

Books by James O'Brien

Articles featuring James O'Brien

Books and resources to help you navigate the 2024 UK general election

Audiobooks to help you understand other people

James O’Brien on why the ‘nanny state’ is nonsense

How Johnson, Truss and Sunak Broke Britain | James O'Brien Vs The Government

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