Michael Blastland was born in Glasgow. A journalist all his professional life, he started on weekly newspapers before moving to the BBC where he makes current affairs programmes for Radio 4, such as Analysis, More or Less and the historical series Why Did We Do That? He lives in Hertfordshire, often with his daughter Cait, less often and less quietly with his son Joe, when he's at home.
Daniel Boorstin wrote in what serves as the epigraph to this book, it’s not ignorance that’s the greatest obstacle to progress, but illusions of knowledge
