WHEN FRANCIS WHEEN finished his latest book he realised it was probably a 'suicidal' thing to have written and sat back to wait for the hate mail.
'When I finished I thought, 'blimey, there's something in here to annoy absolutely everyone',' he says of How Mumbo-Jumbo Conquered the World, his biting take on contemporary history.
Wheen's critique of what he calls 'the retreat of reason' ranges from devotees of astrology and homeopathy to the decreasing separation of church and state, economic fundamentalism, the self-help industry and even the 'collective hysteria' at the death of Princess Diana.
'It was hard to believe that there was anyone who could get through the whole thing without being annoyed,' he says.
Sipping his wine, Wheen says, with English understatement: 'I thought it would probably be a bracing experience.'
Response to a book he subtitled A Short History of Modern Delusions was far more glowing than he'd predicted, with reviewers hailing 'bull****'s enema No1' and saying 'Francis Wheen will not be happy until the last 'tyrant of twaddle' is found drowned in the disused think- tank'. Readers wrote to thank him for opening their eyes to having been suckered - a response they said followed initial fury and thoughts of 'how dare he?'.
'I was pleased that it was making them think about things and examine assumptions that they wouldn't otherwise examine,' he says.
