Simon Mayo’s Books Of The Year
Arts:Books
Investigative journalist, Tom Burgis, joins Simon and Matt to discuss his fascinating new book 'Cuckooland: Where The Rich Own The Truth'
They discuss the dangers involved in his job, what goes in to researching such incredible stories and why he continues to do it.
Here's more info on the book:
Everywhere, the powerful are making a renewed claim to the greatest prize of all: to own the truth. The power to choose what you want reality to be and impose that reality on the world.
For three years, Tom Burgis followed a lead that took him deeper and deeper into Cuckooland – the place where the rich own the truth. The trail snaked from the Kremlin to Kathmandu, Stockholm to the Steppe, from a blood-soaked town square in Uzbekistan to a royal retreat in Scotland. Burgis hunted down oligarchs, developed secret sources and traced vast sums of money flowing between multinational corporations, ex-Soviet dictators and the west’s ruling elites. And he found one man who wanted the power to bend reality to his will.
This book tells an astonishing story: a tale of secrets and lies that reveals how fragile that truth can be. Whether it’s in Kazakh torture chambers or the UK’s High Court, the lords of Cuckooland are seizing control of the truth. They decree what stories may be told about war and money and power, what we are permitted to know – and more importantly, what we are not.
From the bestselling author of Kleptopia, Cuckooland is a deeply reported work of non-fiction that reads like a thriller. It is a story of how globalisation and technological revolution have combined to imperil the foundation of free societies: that the truth belongs to the many, not the few.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Q&A with Mick Herron (Slow Horses, Bad Actors)
Mick Herron (Bad Actors)
Q&A with Tom Bradby (Yesterday's Spy)
Tom Bradby: Yesterday's Spy
Q&A with Claire Powell (At The Table)
Claire Powell: At The Table
Q&A with Justin Webb: The Gift Of A Radio
Justin Webb: The Gift Of A Radio
Q&A with Jo Browning Wroe: A Terrible Kindness
Jo Browning Wroe: A Terrible Kindness
Q&A with Ed Caesar: The Moth and the Mountain
Ed Caesar: The Moth & the Mountain
Q&A with John Boyne (The Echo Chamber)
John Boyne (The Echo Chamber)
Q&A with Ragnar Jonasson
Ragnar Jonasson - The Girl Who Died
Q&A with Mateo Askaripour
Mateo Askaripour (Black Buck)
Q&A with Michael Connelly (Bosch/Lincoln Lawyer)
Michael Connelly (The Law Of Innocence)
Create your
podcast in
minutes
It is Free
Lit Society: Books and Drama
Ex Libris
Write The Book: Conversations on Craft
Frankenstein
Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Fresh Air
Myths and Legends