“Where there is shouting, there is no true knowledge.” said Leonardo da Vinci, and here on this website I hope to quietly introduce you to some of my work as a writer – of books, plays and music. Some of it is simply a catalogue, a rundown of the books I have written, the songs and plays that have made it into the world. But there are other things here simply to be discovered, such as my occasional podcast The Thinking Cap.
“John Farndon is committed to the idea that 'the proper study of mankind is Man’”
Michael Douglas Porter, Amazon review of ‘The World’s Greatest Idea’
“John Farndon’s book celebrates being 'clever' in its widest possible sense, championing the free thinker, the alternative, the individual, the power of deep thought.”
Judges Comments, Society of Authors Education Award, 2010 on “Do You Think You’re Clever”
Current projects
The Whisperers
A story for young and old about the whisperers, special magical beings whose task is to spread knowledge, and their secret battle with The Obscurants, the dark forces who enslave us all by hiding the truth.
Soul traders
How our world and our very understanding of our human nature has fallen thrall to powerful ideas that very few of us actually know anything about, let alone challenge - ideas rooted in the notion, first developed by mathematicians working for the American military in the 1950s, of ‘rational choice theory’.
This Land...is Our Land
The story of the creation of the human landscape: an epic story that spans 70,000 or more years, and has involved the toil and sweat of countless millions of people over the generations - and is in some ways the greatest work of human art of all.
Letters to the next room
A translation of award-winning Russian Tatar author Ravil Bukharaev’s recent epistolatory novel.
Galileo
Science partwork for children in Russia
News
Summer/Autumn 2011
“Do You Think You’re Clever?” goes through 6 reprints in its first 3 weeks of sale in South Korea and reaches the top 20 best-sellers in Turkey.
“Do You Think You’re Clever?” and “The World’s Greatest Idea” occupy the number 1 and 4 spots in Amazon Germany’s kindle bestseller charts.
John Farndon’s song “This Baby Sleeps” is published by Josef Weinberger.
Creaturemag publishes the Endangered Species Alphabet, showcasing the work of 26 illustrators and featuring a foreword and caption by John Farndon
The World's Greatest Idea is to be published in French by Roularta and Bahasa Indonesian by PT Gramedia Busaka Utama
John Farndon speaks at the Wells Literary Festival
John Farndon's Atlas of Oceans is selected by Canada's biggest newspaper, The Globe and Mail, as one of their 2011 gift books on Nature & Science
Discover the Extreme World is one of four books on the Blue Peter Book Awards 2012 shortlist
“Do You Think You’re Clever?” returns to number 1 on Germany's kindle charts and is the Christmas number 1 on Amazon UK's kindle charts.
Featured books and songs
The World’s Greatest Idea
"writing that is both witty and insightful. As a history buff, I enjoyed this book immensely..."
Myles Gough, Cosmos science magazine, Australia
This Baby Sleeps
“My personal favourite though has to be the John Farndon song, This Baby Sleeps: a stunningly tender and luxurious song, with beautiful piano accompaniments and what is undoubtedly Whitefield’s best vocal.”