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Category: The Young Atheist’s Handbook

Bringing Home the Bacon

If you’ve read my book, you’ll know that I give over quite a few pages to the significance of bacon in my life. Here’s a short film made by my friend Barry Gibb which explains why eating bacon for the first time was, for me, a liberating rite of passage:

Lessons from the Young Atheist’s Handbook

As you’ve probably gathered if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, I’ve been relentlessly trying to build up interest in my book over the last few months in the hope that people might buy it when it’s finally released in the UK on July 19th. Not sure how successful my efforts have been (I suspect they’ve been pretty futile) but I’ve particularly enjoyed making this series of short videos which summarise what I think are the key “lessons” from the book. The films were animated by Jack Kenny and… Read more Lessons from the Young Atheist’s Handbook

Parents are our first Gods

It’s Father’s Day in the UK today, and I suspect many people will spend at least a few moments thinking about, and being grateful for, their dads. It feels like today is an appropriate day to share this short film, which encapsulates what I think is probably the central “lesson” from The Young Atheist’s Handbook.

UK Book Launch

It’s still a couple of months until my book will be published in the UK (July 17th), but Biteback have decided on this beautiful design for the cover of the UK edition and the lovely people at the British Humanist Association have organised an event to launch the book with A.C. Grayling, Samira Ahmed, Robin Ince and Adam Rutherford all kindly giving up their time to speak. The launch event will take place at Conway Hall in London on 10th July and is open to the public. Tickets can be… Read more UK Book Launch

World Book Night

It’s Shakespeare’s Birthday today, a date which has been chosen by the organisers of World Book Night for “a celebration of reading and books which sees tens of thousands of passionate volunteers gift books in their communities to share their love of reading”. The project is not just about celebrating reading but about reaching out to those who “have never discovered the value or pleasure of reading”. The video below is one of a series of “Lessons from the Young Atheist’s Handbook” I intended to release around the time of… Read more World Book Night

Teaching Notes

My lovely friend (and award-winning teacher) Kylie Sturgess has kindly written some teaching notes for The Young Atheist’s Handbook, which you can download at the end of this post. In Kylie’s own words: As both a teacher and a writer, I’m often asked by friends and readers to recommend books that will help them learn more about atheism. People seem to be particularly keen on books that talk directly about the challenges that people growing up in religious communities face – especially if they are stories which question the traditions… Read more Teaching Notes

And so it begins…

A friend of mine I spoke to on the phone last night pointed out that this time next week, I will be a published author. My book will be in shops and people I’ve never met before will be able to read what is ultimately an incredibly personal story. A book that started out as a straightforward factual “handbook” for people new to atheism has, for what I now think are very good reasons, ended up as a personal narrative of how and why I came to reject the religion… Read more And so it begins…