In his latest book How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World: A Short History of Modern Delusions, Francis Wheen evokes the key personalities of the post-political era - including Princess Diana, Osama Bin-Laden and Nancy Reagan's astrologer - while charting the extraordinary rise in superstition and emotional hysteria over the past quarter of a century. From UFO scares to dotcom mania, his hilarious and gloriously impassioned polemic describes a period in the world's history when everything began to stop making sense.

Francis Wheen has worked as a diarist on many newspapers and magazines, he has been a book reviewer for Gay News, a theatre critic for Today, a news editor for New Socialist and a contributing editor of Tatler. Having presented News-Stand on BBC Radio 4 for a number of years, he has appeared often on ITV's What the Papers Say and more recently on BBC2's Have I Got News For You. He is now the writer of Wheen's World a regular column appearing in The Guardian - for which he was voted Columnist of the Year - as well as working for Private Eye (allegedly?).

His previous books include The Sixties, Television, The Battle for London, Tom Driberg which was shortlisted for the Whitbread Biography Award, and Karl Marx.

Company :
Venue :	Radisson SAS Hotel Entertainment Centre
Date :	Fri 16
Time :	6pm
Ticket :	Euro7.00