About this Event
Join us for an evening with author of Cuckooland Tom Burgis, Nick Davies and Manisha Ganguly as they discuss freedom and scrutiny of power, here at Waterstones Gower Street.
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.
'Cuckooland exposes one of the very gravest dangers of our era: the way the rich and powerful try to suppress the truth and rewrite objective reality. In this lively, scathing account… fearless.' - Patrick Radden Keefe
Don't forget to include a copy of Cuckooland with your ticket. There will be a book signing following the discussion. Join us from 18:00 for a welcome drink!
Tom Burgis is investigations correspondent at The Guardian. Before that he was at the Financial Times. He has reported from more than forty countries, won major journalism awards in the US and Asia and been shortlisted for eight others, including twice at the British Press Awards. His critically acclaimed book The Looting Machine, about the modern plundering of Africa, won an Overseas Press Club of America award. His last book Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World was the subject of a high profile High Court libel victory in 2022. A Sunday Times bestseller, it has sold 76k copies across all formats to date.
Nick Davies spent 40 years as a journalist, mainly doing investigative work for The Guardian, before retiring in 2016. A consistent theme through almost all of his work was the exposure of those who abused power – corporations bullying governments, governments perverting policy, powerful individuals exploiting the vulnerable. He was named journalist of the year, feature writer of the year and reporter of the year in British press awards. He is the author six books, White Lies, M**der on Ward Four, Dark Heart, School Report, Flat Earth News and Hack Attack.
Manisha Ganguly is the visual investigations lead and investigations correspondent at The Guardian. She is a pioneer in open-source investigations (OSI) to expose war crimes. She is a judge for the News & Documentary Emmy® Awards, a member of BAFTA, a Forbes Under 30 media honouree, and a two-time Amnesty International Media Award winner. Her investigations have resulted in EU and US sanctions, and been cited by the United Nations Security Council, the UK Houses of Parliament, and other state/international bodies.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Waterstones, 82 Gower Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 7.00 to GBP 22.00
