Sceptre buys myth-busting Dutch bestseller about the power of numbers

Hodder imprint Sceptre has snapped up rights to the Dutch bestseller The Number Bias: How Numbers Lead and Mislead Us by econometrician and journalist Sanne Blauw.

Editorial director Juliet Brooke bought UK and Commonwealth rights from Rebecca Carter at Janklow & Nesbit UK. Sceptre will publish for the first time in English in Summer 2020.

The Number Bias was published by The Correspondent to great acclaim in the Netherlands and spent several weeks on the Dutch bestseller lists.

"Spanning the everyday numbers that govern our health and wellbeing to the statistics used to wield enormous power and influence, The Number Bias counsels us to think more wisely," said Sceptre. "Sanne Blauw travels the world using stories from the present day and examples from history to unpick our relationship with numbers and demystify our misguided allegiance; from Florence Nightingale using statistics to petition for better conditions during the Crimean War to the manipulation of numbers by the American tobacco industry and the ambiguous figures pedalled during the EU referendum."

Brooke said: "The Number Bias is a fantastically clear, sharp-eyed reassessment of the part numbers and statistics play in our lives. It’s playful, engaging and speaks to big ideas about subconscious bias and our desire for simplistic answers to complex questions. Following in the tradition of Sceptre’s recent bestseller Factfulness, Sanne Blauw’s book contributes to the necessary debate about demystifying the information we consume without question."