Numbers have become the all-powerful language of public argument. Too often, that power is abused and the numbers bamboozle. This book shows how to see straight through them - and how to seize the power for yourself. Public spending, health risks, environmental disasters, who is rich, who is poor, Aids or war deaths, pensions, teenage offenders, the best and worst schools and hospitals, immigration - life comes in numbers. The trick to seeing through them is strikingly simple. It is to apply something everyone has - the lessons of their own experience. Using vivid and everyday images and ideas, this book shows how close to hand insight and understanding can be, and how we can all use what is familiar to make sense of what is baffling. It is also a revelation - of how little the principles are understood even by many who claim to know better. This book is written by the team who created and present the hugely popular BBC Radio 4 series, More or Less.
Review
David Dimbleby - 'In this witty and fascinating book he explains to us laymen how to make sense of numbers and how we can avoid having the wool pulled over our eyes. Invaluable.'Daily Telegraph - 'A very angry and very funny book...this is one of those maths books that claims to be self-help, and on the evidence presented here, we are in dire need of it...'Sunday Telegraph - 'This delightful book should be compulsory reading for everyone responsible for presenting data and for everyone who consumes it.'
About the Author
Michael Blastland is producer of More or Less and Analysis for BBC Radio 4. He is the author of JOE: The Only Boy in the World (Profile 2006). Andrew Dilnot is Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford and former director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies.
Description:
Numbers have become the all-powerful language of public argument. Too often, that power is abused and the numbers bamboozle. This book shows how to see straight through them - and how to seize the power for yourself. Public spending, health risks, environmental disasters, who is rich, who is poor, Aids or war deaths, pensions, teenage offenders, the best and worst schools and hospitals, immigration - life comes in numbers. The trick to seeing through them is strikingly simple. It is to apply something everyone has - the lessons of their own experience. Using vivid and everyday images and ideas, this book shows how close to hand insight and understanding can be, and how we can all use what is familiar to make sense of what is baffling. It is also a revelation - of how little the principles are understood even by many who claim to know better. This book is written by the team who created and present the hugely popular BBC Radio 4 series, More or Less.
Review
David Dimbleby - 'In this witty and fascinating book he explains to us laymen how to make sense of numbers and how we can avoid having the wool pulled over our eyes. Invaluable.'Daily Telegraph - 'A very angry and very funny book...this is one of those maths books that claims to be self-help, and on the evidence presented here, we are in dire need of it...'Sunday Telegraph - 'This delightful book should be compulsory reading for everyone responsible for presenting data and for everyone who consumes it.'
About the Author
Michael Blastland is producer of More or Less and Analysis for BBC Radio 4. He is the author of JOE: The Only Boy in the World (Profile 2006). Andrew Dilnot is Principal of St Hugh's College, Oxford and former director of the Institute of Fiscal Studies.