Book description
 Not since Christopher Hitchens assault on Mother Theresa have so
many sacred cows been slaughtered in such a short volume.' Spectator
'One of our most celebrated essayists.' Toby Young, Mail on Sunday
'[A] cultural highlight.' Observer 'Surgical demolition.' Guardian In
this perceptive and witty book, Theodore Dalrymple unmasks the hidden
sentimentality that is suffocating public life. Under the multiple
guises of raising children well, caring for the underprivileged,
assisting the less able and doing good generally, we are achieving
quite the opposite Â- for the single purpose of feeling good about
ourselves. Dalrymple takes the reader on both an entertaining and at
times shocking journey through social, political, popular and literary
issues as diverse as child tantrums, aggression, educational reform,
honour killings, sexual abuse, Che Guevara, Eric Segal, Romeo and
Juliet, the McCanns, public emotions and the role of suffering, and
shows the perverse results when we abandon logic in favour of the cult
of feeling.
