Devil's Advocate

Devil's Advocate

by JohnHumphrys (Author)

Synopsis

In Devil's Advocate, John Humphrys uses his experience to set in context the changes that have overtaken Britain during those forty years. He debates the issues that he believes should concern us all. He challenges our changing social and moral values and questions the direction society is taking. We are much better off than we have ever been, but Humphrys senses a deep unease. Instead of a world in which there were many different influences telling us what life was all about, and what living a good life might involve, we now have a single voice that threatens to drown out all the others. That voice is consumer populism. Its strength derives from the increasing commercialisation of our lives and a media, which is itself under greater and greater commercial pressures. Some of the effects include a coarsening of the fabric of daily life and a growing thoughtlessness and even hysteria in public debate. Our children are losing their innocence at an ever-earlier age and, though we worry about it, we seem impotent in the face of it. Humphrys asks whether, if we had been able to choose our destinat

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More Information

Format: Paperback
Pages: 288
Edition: 1st Arrow Books Edition
Publisher: Arrow
Published: 05 Oct 2000

ISBN 10: 0099279657
ISBN 13: 9780099279655

Media 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 *
Author Bio
John Humphrys has reported from all over the world for the BBC and presented its frontline news programmes on both radio and television, in a broadcasting career spanning forty years. He has won a string of national awards and been described as a 'national treasure'. He owned a dairy farm for ten years and has homes in Greece and London.