How to Be Right cover art

How to Be Right

...in a world gone wrong

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How to Be Right

By: James O'Brien
Narrated by: James O'Brien
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About this listen

Random House presents the audiobook edition of How to Be Right, written and read by James O'Brien.

Forget agreeing to disagree – it’s time to learn How To Be Right.

Every day, James O’Brien listens to people blaming benefits scroungers, the EU, Muslims, feminists and immigrants. But what makes James’s daily LBC show such essential listening – and has made James a standout social media star – is the careful way he punctures their assumptions and dismantles their arguments live on air, every single morning.

In How To Be Right, James provides a hilarious and invigorating guide to talking to people with faulty opinions. With chapters on every lightning-rod issue, James shows how people have been fooled into thinking the way they do, and in each case outlines the key questions to ask to reveal fallacies, inconsistencies and double standards.

If you ever get cornered by ardent Brexiteers, Daily Mail disciples or little England patriots, this book is your conversation survival guide.

‘I have had a ringside seat as a significant swathe of the British population was persuaded that their failures were the fault of foreigners, that unisex lavatories threatened their peace of mind and that ‘all Muslims’ must somehow apologise for terror attacks by extremists. I have tried to dissuade them and sometimes succeeded.... The challenge is to distinguish sharply between the people who told lies and the people whose only offence was to believe them.’ (James O’Brien)

©2018 James O'Brien (P)2018 Penguin Audio
Politics & Government

Critic Reviews

"O’Brien is an exceptional broadcaster with a peerless ability to calmly point out the absurdity of certain viewpoints, a quality which similarly runs through this book ... provides a much-needed examination of the blustering rhetoric of politicians and media pundits, and brings a sliver of comfort to readers that they are not alone in their despair." (The Guardian)

"Almost indecently enjoyable." (Robert Webb)

"I know few broadcasters as consistently, forensically, brilliant as James O’ Brien. Here, he shows us -- with empathy, edge and exquisite comedy -- how it happens." (Emily Maitlis)

What listeners say about How to Be Right

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Amazing how angry people get by being asked simple questions

An uplifting tale of how a boy was bitten by a radioactive spider to develop the world’s thickest skin.

Quite how O’Brien remains so calm, measured, and compassionate when confronted by such hostility, is quite remarkable.

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Well, he isn’t wrong

A great listen, and made even better by the fact James reads it himself which helps enormously when he goes into battle with the actors he has in place for the callers.
I will say James O’Brien has changed my views on Brexit.
It’s very easy to see how Brexit did happen when I have harboured the same views as most English that immigrants are a source of our problems and we are still somehow at war with Germany.
I note how my views were skewed and not just in the referendum but for many years prior by right wing media and papers. Stories in the paper that he talks about, including the flag of St George not being allowed are stories I remember very well from long ago that I had formed the same lazy view as his callers.

I would ask anyone that is a Brexiteer to listen to the entire audiobook but skip the Brexit chapter until you have listened and formed a view that you probably agree with most things that James says and then listen to the Brexit chapter and ask yourself, is he wrong?

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brilliant

I listened to this book over a weekend. as a regular listener to James on LBC it was great to hear his thoughts set out like this

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Loved it

James O’Brien arms us not only with his words but with his passion to fight back against the swirl of madness not just in politics but in the mind of the common man. It’s not about winning but getting to the truth, and O’Brien invites us to see how and where to start tacking the fragile and arguments so prevalent in society today.

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No Massive Revelations

No massive revelations to be had in terms of questioning peoples thinking and perspective on the subjects covered - especially if one is well read, well informed, and, on that note ... generally well in the head!

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