sold: Denying Science

AAPPL, the UK publisher which released my books Discarded Science, Corrupted Science and Bogus Science (among others), told me a year or so ago that it plans quietly to fold up its tents: it's not going out of business by any means, but, with a good backlist to maintain and exploit, it's not going to take on anything new. Kind of a shame, because they've done some great books, but I can understand how they feel.

This of course left me with the problem of finding a new publisher for future titles along the same lines. Although I was very keen to approach Prometheus, a publisher on whom I've long had a decided crush (they've published so many of my favourite books!), we assumed the US distributor of the three AAPPL books had first dibs . . . and so began a year-long process of, basically, being jerked around.

Finally we lost patience and sent my proposal for a new "----- Science" book Prometheus's way, and with remarkable speed they came back with an offer. I am absolutely in seventh heaven about this: it's kind of the realization of a longstanding dream to be published under the Prometheus imprint. You know: me and Martin Gardner sharing a publisher . . .

The book is to be called Denying Science and is, as you might guess, about the denial of science -- obviously a very topical subject at the moment, what with large-scale movements to deny anthropogenic climate change, the efficacy of vaccination, etc., etc., etc. Like Corrupted Science, it will doubtless be accused by extremists of being politically motivated because of a refusal to pretend there's some kind of valid midpoint between reality and stark, staring fallacy, as between natural selection and Creationism -- a refusal to be polite about bullshit, in other words. More hatemail will inevitably be coming my way; so it goes. But I think that, again as with Corrupted Science, this book really needs to be written as a counter to the tides of imbecility that threaten to engulf us.

Obviously I'm hoping Denying Science will be but the first episode of a long partnership with Prometheus, and they seem to feel similarly. There's been a whole lot of celebrating going on around here.