Was due to be in shops next week, but browsing through Waterstones in Trafalgar Square I came across a pile of copies. Yes, authorly pride got the better of me and I snapped them in all their (gulp) unsold glory. Today I’m starting the word of mouth trail on BBC Radio Kent. Yes, the journey of a thousand miles, etc. And if you want to book me for for your book club, just drop me an email – as long as I can cycle there it’s fine.

As a reader of this blog, I would love to encourage you (ok, implore you) to buy a copy – it’s not a book about the media (that’s next year’s). It’s a big picture look at all the forces driving us to destruction and distraction. The hope is that by making an effort to understand them, we can do something – or things – to stop them.

Why is it written by journalists? Well, isn’t that what we ought to be doing? Here’s what’s inside the cover, and if you buy one and track me down I promise to sign it.

• Foreword by Kirsty Young
• Introduction
• Ch1 Why is it Crunch Time Now?
• Ch2 Too Many Toys: The successes and excesses of consumer capitalism
• Ch3 Sharing the Spoils: The limits of globalisation
• Ch4 Envirocide: The collateral damage of being human
• Ch5 Powering our Lifestyle: Doom, gloom and optimism in the energy markets
• Ch6 Big, Bad Business: The myths and realities of corporate power
• Ch7 Maintaining the Disparity: People, pawns and military power
• Ch8 Barbarians at the Gate: Childless countries and the fear of an immigrant future
• Ch9 Democratic Dreaming: The promises and parameters of politics
• Ch10 Extreme Evolution: How science may help us out-think the future
• Conclusion: Postponing Extinction

Of course, there’s a long way to go before it challenges the UK’s runaway politics bestseller. In case you were wondering, it’s not by George Monbiot or Naomi Klein, it’s Life in the United Kingdom: A Journey to Citizenship – by those wags at the Home Office.