Bloomsbury Continuum bags Cellan-Jones on technology's impact

Bloomsbury Continuum is to publish BBC technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones' non-fiction work, Always On.

Commissioning editor Jamie Birkett acquired world all languages rights from Elly James at HHB Agency.

Described as "the inside story of how tech became personal, and pernicious", the book explores the impact of hyperconnectivity, the smartphone and social media on everything from democracy to employment and health. It includes insight from those at the forefront of the "tech revolution", including the late Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, Tim Berners-Lee, Martha Lane-Fox and Jimmy Wales. The final section of the book draws on the author’s own experience with technology and medicine, as he continues to adapt to life with Parkinson’s, and explores how technology can be used to support research, enabling results that would improve treatment.

Cellan-Jones said: "I am thrilled by the opportunity to tell the story of the era when powerful tech became personal, with a smartphone in every pocket changing the way we live and work. Writing this book during the global pandemic, which saw the digital transformation of our lives accelerate, brought home to me how vital it is that we learn how to shape technology so that it is a force for good rather than harm."

James added: "Rory is the ideal guide to steer us through the technological landscape of the past 30 years, to show us how we got to where we are now, to wonder at the opportunities and perils that lie ahead, and I am delighted that Bloomsbury will be publishing this important and illuminating book."

Birkett said: "I’ve long admired Rory’s ability to communicate cutting-edge tech stories to a wide audience through television, podcast, radio and social media. I’m therefore delighted that Bloomsbury are to publish his immensely readable and enlightening book Always On, reflecting on his long BBC career, the implications of the smartphone revolution and the key role technology has to play in our virus-stricken era."

Bloomsbury Continuum will publish on 13th May.