Why it’s time to listen

KLEIN’S previous bestsellers – No Logo, a diatribe against global brands, and The Shock Doctrine, a similarly hard-hitting demolition of neoliberalism – are both essentials on the modern liberal’s bookshelf.

With this latest book, she turns to climate change, arguing that an unstoppable crisis is almost upon us. Part of the problem, she says, lies with our global society, which persists in “looking away”.

Her solution – to abandon our socio-economic system completely – might seem rash, but there will be few reading this genuinely frightening book who won’t hear echoes of Cassandra. As with her other books, Klein can be accused of leaning too far to the left to be wholly loved by the mainstream, but she’s no fool. Maybe one day we’ll wish we’d listened.

Sarah Warwick

Hopeful by Omid Djalili (Headline £20) 4/5 stars 

GROWING up in a London “guesthouse” for sick Iranians could have provided stand-up comic Omid Djalili with a variety of different career paths – perhaps into the medical profession, languages, or even social work.

Either way, it would have seemed unlikely at the time that he would go on to have parts in Hollywood blockbusters like Gladiator, Sex And The City and The Mummy.

Comedy wasn’t high on the 48-year-old’s agenda as a child – aside from, during a period of fascination with playing cards, saying he wanted to be ‘the joker’ when he grew up. Hopeful is a warm insight into the diverse life Djalili has had, charting the struggles of any youngster, along with the added pressure of trying to find his own cultural identity.

Rebecca Flitton