Would They Lie To You?: How to Spin Friends and Manipulate People

By Robert Hutton

How do you apologise when you're not sorry? Where can you make a fortune out of pretending to know the future? What's the best way to steal credit and avoid blame? These are the vital life skills that people need if they're going to make their way in the world. And they all involve one ingredient: flannel, the art of not saying what you mean. It's not exactly lying, but it's definitely not telling the truth. In Romps, Tots and Boffins, Robert Hutton brilliantly 'laid bare' the true meanings of the words we read in the papers. Following popular demand, he now turns his razor-sharp eye to the best, worst and most outlandish examples of waffle, fudging, obscurity, blame-shifting and point-scoring. In areas from politics to sports, academia, religion and self-help, it seems that glory, money and power flow far more freely to those who sidestep bald, ugly realities. You can steer a truck through the gap between a lie and the simple truth. This book tells you how to load the truck.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elliott & Thompson
• Release date: Sep 4, 2014
• ISBN: 9781783960095

Robert Hutton

Robert Hutton has been Bloomberg’s UK Political Correspondent since 2004. Before that he was a reporter on the Daily Mirror, and before that he built robots and taught computers to play Bridge at Edinburgh University. He’s married with two sons, and lives in South East London. Hutton's previous books include Would They Lie to You? and Romps, Tots and Boffins: The Strange Language of News.

Reviews for Would They Lie To You?

[atticusfinch1048 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Would They Lie To You – ProbablyWould They Lie To You? By Robert Hutton is a funny look at how some people use communication skills to actually tell you very little. As a former political spinner I recognise many of the skills and words attributed to my former colleagues. The job of a political spinner is to say much and promise nothing but make it sound good. Or how the same message used previously has been redressed and made out to be a new idea.This book gives hints how you too can join in the fun and spin to your friends and even better how to manipulate them all part of the dark arts. In 143 pages Hutton makes you laugh out loud from Chapter 1 and the essential uncommunication skills required to say nothing while speaking while seeming to promise the earth.Would They Lie To You? Is an excellent little book that will make you smile especially when you listen to the rolling news stations and listen to spinners talking and saying nothing. You could use this book to set up non communication bingo to see how many of the words mentioned in this book get used throughout a statement.Funny, buy it especially if you have an interest in the usage of language in English and how it gets abused by people who ought to know better.