The Fallout: How a guilty liberal lost his innocence

In 2001 Andrew Anthony was 39, a successful Observer and Guardian journalist who had just become a father. He was perfectly poised to settle into English middle-class middle-age life. A signed-up member of the liberal left, he'd even spent time supporting the Sandinistas in Nicaragua in the 80s. There were assumptions that, like wallet and keys, he never left the house without- the greatest menace to world security was America; crime was a function of poverty; Israel was the source of all the troubles in the Middle East. Then came the wake-up call- 9/11. Shocked by the response of liberal friends and colleagues - a belief that America had it coming, a determination to understand the perpetrator rather than support the victim - Anthony was forced to re-examine and unpick his prejudices. It seemed there were other threats in the world far more malicious and dangerous than America. Could he really go on tolerating the intolerable?The Fall-Out is his memoir, an account of his political education in Thatcher's Britain and the painful midlife reassessment. It shifts from the universal to the personal, the global to the local. The Iraq war, the vicious murder of Theo van Gogh, the 7/7 bombings, ethnic divisions and violence on quiet London streets- Anthony touches on all these to show how the 'muddled thinking, hypocrisy and cant' of the liberal middle-class has led to a world where guilt leaves people too timid to confront the vital issues of the day. Along the way there are revealing encounters with Christopher Hitchens, George Galloway, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Yusuf Islam and Michael Moore. From one of the country's finest journalists, this a major book about broken dreams, darkened illusions and big questions that no longer match their received answers. This is a controversial and humane reality check - an invitation to wake up and smell the cordite.

About the Author :
Andrew Anthony is a feature writer and investigative journalist. He has written for the Observer for 10 years, and also writes for the Guardian, Vogue and the Saturday Telegraph. His features cover a wide range of subjects- politics, crime, sport, literature, TV and popular culture.

Review :
"A subtle, delicately nuanced, impassioned, courageous, elegantly formulated and far-reaching examination of the state of our ailing nation" "A vivid and sensitive writer...clever, engaging and palpably sincere" "This outstanding book works on one level as cultural commentary ... Anthony's book skilfully interweaves autobiography with cultural and political commentary. It is sparely written, frequently affecting, and his judgements are morally sane and sensible" "A timely, pertinent and brilliantly argued book" "Beautifully written, illuminating and moving"