How To Be Right & How Not To Be Wrong

 I like James O’Brien. I like listening to him calmly, politely and methodically demolishing ill-considered arguments on

everything from Brexit to Islam, Trump to LGBT and the flag of the United Kingdom. He’s articulate, polite and well-informed and he doesn’t use his spot behind the radio microphone to insult his callers.

All of which is what you find in How To Be Right, a book filled with both conversations from his radio show and his own musings on the subjects raised. It’s beautifully written, very easy to read and yes, it does agree with the way I tend to see the world, which is another reason I like it.

It’s so good – and was so successful – that a second book followed it. But anyone expecting more of the same as its predecessor will be disappointed. Because while there are a few of the conversations that filled Right, the chief target for enlightenment in Wrong is O’Brien himself.

In How Not To Be Wrong you’ll find him examining how he came to be the personality he is today, unpicking his past and looking hard at incidents I think most of us would prefer to forget. And I don’t mean being expelled from 24 schools by the time he was 15, doing a ton of cocaine in a Concorde toilet and driving a Ferrari through the Sistine Chapel. In his case it’s becoming a little too happy with his on-air persona, taking a few too many drinks, and picking on several too-easy targets on his radio show.

In short, he’s doing a James O’Brien on James O’Brien, picking his own misconceptions and arguments apart and taking the time to show the reader that someone who’s on-air persona is based on Being Right has often, actually, been Wrong. And, in the process, providing yet more food for thought about issues confronting our society today.

A fascinating duo.