Derren Brown

I've nearly finished reading Derren Brown's Tricks of the Mind book. And its been enjoyable reading. He professes in the book to not want to have written a Self Help book (which his publisher first requested). In places it is a little like that but with a self-awareness and pragmatic simplicity that is missing from lots of other books of that type. At least the few I've seen. The rest of the book has sections focussed on things like magical tricks, body language and cold reading. These are obviously not new things to write about but his perspective is matter-of-fact and self-aware and he adds in personal anecdotes that are usually funny or sensitive and revealing.

The section that most interested me, predictably, was on pseudo-science and alternative medicines. It's essentially the same as the equivalent section in Ben Goldacre's Bad Science. What is different is he brings in his experience as a Christian when growing up and his idea of True Believer, someone with unshakable faith contrary to the Scientific Principle.

Derren Brown has gone up a little in my expectations but, wanting to adhere to the Scientific Principle, he needs to keep providing evidence to confirm my hypothesis that he's probably an alright bloke.