I received the following email from a Turkish reader of The Young Atheist’s Handbook. She has kindly let me share it here: Dear Mr. Shaha I read your book in Turkish some time ago. When I read your statement that you don’t know if your book can translate into your mother tongue or not, I feel sorry for you and feel myself lucky at the same time. I’m a Turkish Republic citizen and this kind of books can translate into my language. Unfortunately Islamist movements are getting stronger in Turkey… Read more Letter from a Turkish Reader →
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:
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 →
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.
The lovely organisers of the Perth Writers Festival have invited me to speak at three events next month: 25th Feb – Has Multiculturalism Failed? 25th Feb – Living a Good… Read more Perth Writers Festival →
It feels like my life has been revolving around “The Young Atheist’s Handbook” since I first conceived of it, back in the spring of 2009. It hasn’t taken this long to write, but it has taken this length of time for it to go from an idea to a real, physical book (although I have yet to hold an actual printed copy in my hands). I know I’ve been lucky and that it can take much longer for a writer to have his or her first book published, but it… Read more The Year of the Book →