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Devil's Advocate
Devil's Advocate
Oct 18, 2024 8:27 AM

Author:John Humphrys

Devil's Advocate

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For decades, John Humphrys has been at the beating heart of the BBC's news division.

From the 9 O'Clock News desk to his marathon 32-year stint on the Today Programme, Humphrys has had a remarkable career as a journalist, steering the coverage of stories and issues that have defined multiple generations of British life. If the country has a pulse, John Humphrys is the man whose finger is firmly on it.

In Devil's Advocate, Humphrys draws on his immense experience to detail the huge, sweeping changes that have overtaken Britain during his career. From the thorny geopolitical questions of the UK's relationship with Europe and America to the subtler ways our national social and moral values have changed, Humphrys sees a deep unease at the heart of a divided union, and identifies what truly links us all: consumer populism.

As our lives and media become increasingly commercialised, the fabric of daily life begins to fray and a growing thoughtlessness and even hysteria emerge in public debate. Our children, growing up online, are losing their innocence at an ever-earlier age. In an age when our control over the world seems to be fraying, Humphrys wonders if we've ever had much say in our destination.

A brilliant and incisive analysis of the changing state of Britain from one of the leading lights of BBC journalism.

Reviews

One of the most brilliant journalists in the country

—— Daily Mail

Peerless reporting ... sharp and instructive ... wonderfully acidic about people when he thinks they deserve it

—— Observer

A national institution

—— Sunday Times

Playing devil's advocate is the function he performs better than anyone else anywhere ... an excellent and amusing read

—— New Statesman

Written from the battlefield ... Humphrys has written an important book

—— Irish Times

The best political diarist of our times

—— Malcolm Rutherford, Financial Times

Reading A. N. Wilson's The Victorians provides ongoing pleasure in handsomely researched, beautifully written prose about an age which we have come to think disparagingly. We thought wrong

—— Clement Freud , Mail on Sunday

The Victorians was one of the books that gave me greatest pleasure during the past year... A brilliant evocation of an age

—— Ian McIntyre , The Times

Rarely have author and subject been found in such deep and contented harmony... Wilson's tour de force

—— Robert McCrum , Observer

Wilson's panoramic survey is the best attempt so far to describe and explain what was happening in that fascinating time

—— Literary Review

The Victorians finds Wilson writing at the height of his powers

—— The Independent

I can't recall a history book furnishing so many laughs en route ... The Victorians is a work of scholarship, a labour of love, a persusasive polemic

—— John Sutherland , Mail on Sunday
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