Like @charlottewest I've been judging some PR awards, and I also feel a need to let off some steam after reading through 30-odd entries, some of which (not to put too fine a point on it) were deeply mediocre.

Read Charlotte's views here. Mine follow...
linkedin.com/pulse/winner-i… So, first... a bucketload of coverage is not impact. I mean sure, it's good. And PR people like good coverage. But it signifies nothing meaningful, and if your brief was 'get a lot of coverage' then you needed to reframe it. Ditto on outcomes vs. outputs. Don't confuse the two.

.@campbellclaret and @RoryStewartUK, you asked for views on your interview with @DavidLammy - in a word, excellent. You did absolutely, rightly push him on the policy areas you felt he was weak on (DFID, 0.7%, Brexit), and he (rightly) held the party line. One of the things that's so hard to reconcile about politics is the way it negates, in well run parties, your abilities to have a personal view. In a moment of weakness, or in a future where David Lammy steps down from office - I'm sure he'll share his candid opinions...

I've just finished @KuperSimon's CHUMS, an excellent choice of Xmas present from my mother in law.

It's a thesis on the simultaneous failings and triumph of the Oxbridge institution (particularly Oxford) at producing blustering, over-confident and under-detailed Tory leaders. At 200 pages (plus footnotes), this is not an exhaustive history but a selective series of insights, anecdotes and clever timelines that illustrate the coincidences and designs that brought a selection of senior Tories into the prime of their game - Johnson, Gove, & more.

I’ve just finished reading @geoffwhite247’s Lazarus Heist, telling the story of the podcast in written form. It’s every bit as entertaining as the podcast was in bringing the story of the Lazarus Group’s various antics - not least a £1bn bank heist - to life. It contains all the narrative flair of the podcast; Geoff tells the story *as* a heist, building dramatic tension as the protagonists and antagonists, victims and dupes, move from one moment to the next in the drama.

I’ve just finished @flashboy and @JonnElledge’s excellent book, CONSPIRACY. Tom’s a friend of over two decades standing and Jonn was the year below me at college too, so consider yourself disclaimed of reviewer’s bias. Tl;dr, it’s an excellent rundown of the history and status of both conspiracy theories and conspiracy theorising; how these come to be, why they are believed, how they propagate (in the era of the internet and in days gone by), written in a slick, accessible style.

I've been at @BTGroup a month today. It's been an absolute hoot so far; a colleague community that wants to do the right thing, wills each other continually to success, and so many people helping me duck and dive to get good work through. I have probably taken on too many projects (we have a lot to juggle, within & without); everything from data & AI and hyperscaler strategy to architecture to service delivery, to new products, culture change & more, but I wouldn't have it any other way.

I made myself finish @Dieter_Helm's Net Zero this week, which was recommended to me.

And also not recommended to me by another friend, who described it as on a part with 'self harm' as a book.

Which was a curious description to me... until I read it. It's very hard to know how to approach this book. Clearly Professor Helm is an expert on the issues in the book and respected in his field. And to me, the book - like so much mainstream writing on this topic - appears to be designed for the mass market.

Discovered @ProfEmilyOster via @ArvD and @Ninna_B and have delighted in her substack in recent months, spanning covid and parenting couched in the comforting embrace of economic-style-data-nerdery. On my brother's recommendation I read her new book, 'The Family Firm' (link soon) The book's rather delightful, even for those of us on this side of the pond, as if you can get past the Americanisms (both linguistic - middle school, firm, etc) and cultural (I have yet to meet a Brit who calls a family meeting a family meeting, but maybe that's my circle)...

Just finished @Sathnam’s ‘The Boy with the Topknot’. A book that literally both made me laugh and cry. A book that was both profoundly familiar whilst being extremely different to my own experience of the world; of, in particular the dual-identity nature of being an Indian son. Unlike Sathnam, I was mostly spared the ‘when will you be getting married son’ pleading from my parents. They married for love, in violation of my mother’s family traditions at least, and both married out of their communities.

Dad told me today that the ‘origin story’ of our family name is apocryphal - a story my grandmother liked and propagated rather than anything rooted in reality. Not quite sure how to process this. The story went (so Grandma told us), my great great great grandfather wanted to trade in meat, couldn’t as a Hindu Brahmin, and converted with many of his village with the help of one Father David. They all took his name.

Apparently this is nonsense.

Last night I finished @MarcusRashford‘s YOU ARE A CHAMPION. I bought it because I like Marcus Rashford and what he’s doing, and I have three young children I want to set up for success.

It’s a very good read. For a few reasons… First, and foremost, it’s really lovely to get an insight into Marcus’ world - the things that defined him, from his obsession practicing drills to improve his footballing skills through to the way his competitive nature helped him navigate school…

I've just read @yassmin_a 'YOU MUST BE LAYLA', which I've been meaning to read since Yassmin gave a talk around the black experience for BHM at my work.

It's a lovely book, about a girl finding her place in an unfamiliar &intimidating context. Pitched at kids, maybe 10-12 ish. I'm going to see what my 10 year old makes of it; as a Brit with mixed heritage, she will (and probably has already started) to find friends who struggle to understand why she's different, just as she starts to grapple with the complexities of her own identity.

I've finished reading @ruskin147's 'ALWAYS ON: Hope and fear in the social smartphone era and it's an absolute delight. #armandminibookreview to follow.

First thing to note is that this book does many things. Part memoir, part modern history, part socio-political thesis. ...this variety makes it richer, not poorer, as Rory's typically crisp and engaging writing style makes complex issues clear and paints a picture of the rapid change we've seen in the last 15-20 years that's worth reflecting on.

I've just finished Shaun Tan's 'TALE FROM THE INNER CITY', which I'm pretty sure was a recommendation from @PrepSchoolEng that I've just taken an age to get to.

It's a rather delightful book - melancholic and sonorous in a series of stories told from eccentric perspectives. Superficially about animals and humans in an urban environment, the whole thing felt like a rumination on the human condition, the animals providing a framing that made humanity's habits look all the more irrational.

Midway through, Bill Gates captions a picture of himself, grinning from ear to ear in a fertiliser factory in Tanzania. He says "I'm having even more fun than it looks."

This simply joy at knowledge is why I've always liked him, and makes this book such a delight. Gates does what you'd expect; he maps out the different challenges we face due to climate change (across five categories - how we plug in, make things, grow things, get around, keep cool and stay warm), and looks to the innovations we have and need to overcome them.

I read @amateuradam's "EVERYTHING IS GOING TO HURT" last week. A super-engaging, super-disturbing whistle-stop tour of life in the NHS for junior doctors (i.e. anyone in their first 6-8 years of medical practice). It lays bare the practical impact of inadequate gov't policy on healthcare service, in what is not so much a political polemic (though it closes with an open letter to the then minister for health), but in a hundred different anecdotes that chronicle a wide range of issues.

I read @Baddiel #jewsdontcount this weekend. It's a quick read, but not light reading. David takes a whistlestop tour through the many, many occasions where - largely people from the progressive left, often people like me who champion anti-racism, downplay anti-semitism. It's depressing that anyone could discount any form of discrimination. "Because they're white" and "because they're rich" are unacceptable (often false) reasons to consider that anti-semitism is in any way less intolerable than any other form of racism. David makes this case well

I finished reading @TimHarford's 'HOW TO MAKE THE WORLD ADD UP' this week and wanted to post an #armandminibookreview (hashtagging so I can find this later and repost to book review sites).

tl;dr, it's an awesome book. Everyone should read it. Slightly longer assessment... Tim elegantly captures some of the core principles needed to assess statistics when they are presented to you, in the news on social and elsewhere.