Celebrity: The Thinking Person's Guide to a Terrifying World

Celebrity: The Thinking Person's Guide to a Terrifying World

A brilliant, hilarious thinking person's guide to a world obsessed to the point of lunacy by celebrity: a guide to our times and a classic piece of comic writing. Do you wonder where it's all going to end? Does the word 'celebrity' sound like a great name for a fifth horseman of the apocalypse? Do you doubt there's even time to build a fallout shelter? Then this book is for you: an invaluable primer to the celebriscape, a world expanding twice as fast as the universe it inhabits. Celebrity is a coruscating, hilarious, thinking person's guide to a world in which it is considered reasonable that Angelina Jolie advises on the Iraqi reconstruction effort, Charlie Sheen analyses 9/11, and in which Jude Law's views on the Taliban are taken seriously. Anatomising every aspect of our crazed world, Celebrity tackles the big topics, including 'Celebrity Activism -- when celebrities care', 'Celebrities and the Middle East: a troubled region's brightest hope?', and 'Celebrity Religions: who do the worshipped worship?'. Celebrity also provides indispensible resources: a glossary of common words or expressions -- such as 'She's suffering from exhaustion' (She has a prescription painkiller problem), 'She has a prescription painkiller problem' (She has a coke problem) and so on -- and a diagram of a generic celebrity entourage, clearly explaining the precise role of every nutritionist, lawyer and canine beautician. Celebrity is a roadmap, a survivalist's guide, a Rosetta Stone for our times: you are not equipped to engage with the world without a copy. "This hilarious romp through modern culture by the Guardian columnist highlights the bizarre reach of hollow fame these days... Shudder-inducingly funny." -- The Big Issue MARINA HYDE read English at Christ Church, Oxford, and started in journalism as a temporary secretary on the Sun 's showbiz desk. She has worked at the Guardian since 2000, where her three weekly columns -- on sport, celebrity and politics -- have won her a reputation as one of the funniest and most admired journalists in the UK. New Mint Condition Dispatch same day for order received before 12 noon Guaranteed packaging No quibbles returns