Reviews - 2

Here's another of the pre-publication reviews of The Hockey Stick Illusion:

Although the science is not always straightforward, Andrew W. Montford manages to make the story both exciting and accessible to the reader. He uses the Hockey Stick as an example of how manipulation of data and publication routines can change the whole world’s view of an important subject. The story is told in such a fascinating way that it is hard to take ones eyes from the page.

Wibjörn Karlén
Professor of Geography (Emeritus)
University of Stockholm

Hockey Stick Illusion for US readers

While my publisher has made valiant efforts to sell the US rights to The Hockey Stick Illusion and I've made my own attempts too, we've had no joy so far. US readers can buy the book direct from Amazon UK, but this may be relatively expensive. Could someone perhaps find out how much it would cost to buy and ship a single copy to the US?

I'm still very tempted to self-publish in the US. There's a typeset manuscript ready to go, which would just need a cover design. However, wiser heads are advising me to hold on, and of course if I can make an impact in the UK there's always the possibility that someone will pick me up for North America.

What do readers think?

Reviews - 1

I thought that people might be interested in some of the pre-publication reviews of The Hockey Stick Illusion - I'll post these up over the next week or so. Here's the one that was chosen for the cover:

This is a thriller about codebreaking – not Napoleon's or Hitler's codes, but computer codes that generated a false signal to the world about runaway global warming. Like most codebreaking it was painfully slow but Montford keeps the drama pacy as the years pass, while he explains the intricacies in the plainest possible language. By military codebreaking, the likes of Scovell and Turing helped to change the course of history, and McIntyre and McKitrick should soon do the same, when the statistical fudges that misled the politicians become more widely known.

Nigel Calder
Former editor, New Scientist
co-author, The Chilling Stars

Hockey Stick Illusion ships Monday

I've had word from the publisher that The Hockey Stick Illusion will start to ship from the warehouse on Monday.

Phew! That was a long haul. Amazing to compare the turnaround at a traditional publisher to the speed with which Fuller and Mosher have produced their Climategate: The CRUTape Letters.

Something's up

The Hockey Stick Illusion currently has an Amazon sales rank of around 200, its highest to date. Yesterday it was at something like 17,000.

What happened?

The Report

Provided the producers decided I didn't waffle too much, I should appear in The Report, tonight at 8pm, UK time. Link here. It should be available on the iPlayer for a while thereafter.

Lots of people think I will have been set up ("They always set up the sceptics!").

Let's see....

Update on Dec 10, 2009 by Bishop Hill

Overall I was pretty pleased with that.  I think the programme gave a fair crack of the whip to both sides and I think the conclusions were pretty much correct for where we stand now.

A few minor gripes:

• having said that the Hockey Stick isn't central to the AGW debate, it would have been nice if they hadn't cut off the bit where I explained why it matters
• the evidence that the IPCC process was biased against sceptics was not mentioned
• some mention of the code and maybe the Harry readme would have broadened the perspective.

But for my first experience of mainstream media, I'm quite happy (apart from the fact they didn't mention the book!!).

The Report

So my encounter with the BBC is over and they're off to St Andrews for their next interview. There was only one hiccup: I got a nasty shock when the interviewer, Simon Cox, said they wanted to interview me in front of my PC - the office looks like a bomb hit it. I would try to convince you that this is not normal, but that would be a gratuitous lie. Simon and Wesley, the researcher, were very nice though and didn't bat an eyelid.

L-R: Wesley (researcher), Simon, Bishop

The whole thing was very relaxed and I surprised myself by not being particularly nervous. Simon has a rather laconic manner, which suddenly disappears when he slips into super-interested-interviewer mode, and I was slightly taken aback the first time it happened, but after that I found myself waffling away quite happily. Simon clearly knew his stuff, having spent the whole weekend reading the emails - all of them he said - and he also covered the NAS hearings in 2006, so he had spoken to many of the key players before. He seems convinced that there is a story to tell. Interestingly he had also taken in my less-than-complimentary views on the BBC, but seemed completely unconcerned by them.

They're going to talk to McIntyre and Mann as well, so I think there's a fair range of views in there. They were quite interested in my visitor numbers and where people were coming from, so I think there may be a media angle to the story as well.

All in all, I enjoyed it. I just wish I could have tidied (and preferably redecorated) the office first.