John Kampfner, 'Braver New World'

John Kampfner is coming to The Old Market on Sunday 11 October, as part of the Brighton & Hove Speakers Festival. He'll be talking about his eighth book, Braver New World, which came out with Atlantic Books earlier this year and has already hit the top ten. It's a look at the state of Britain — the NHS, housing, and social care — and it's the kind of thing that's usually a bit of a moan without much to show for it, but Kampfner does it differently.

He builds the book around real-world examples of things that are already working elsewhere: Japan's care systems, Vienna's social housing, Taiwan's healthcare, and Finland's education. The whole point is to ask why Britain isn't following suit. The Financial Times called it "rattlingly readable... inspiring", and the New Statesman described it as "a rare example of a Broken Britain book with answers". It follows Why the Germans Do It Better, which was a top ten bestseller and named Book of the Year by the Guardian, the Economist, and the New Statesman.

Kampfner's a bit of a veteran when it comes to this sort of thing. He's an award-winning author, broadcaster, and foreign affairs commentator who started out reporting from East Berlin during the fall of the Wall and from Moscow during the collapse of communism, before covering British politics for the Financial Times and the BBC and editing the New Statesman. He's spent a long time watching how different countries handle the same problems we're struggling with here, and Braver New World is him bringing that perspective home.

On the day, he'll be joined on stage by presenter Chilli Sharpe. The talk runs from 1.20pm to 2.30pm at The Old Market, Upper Market Street, Hove, BN3 1AS, as part of the Brighton & Hove Speakers Festival.