Hurst to rush-release Ctrl Alt Delete following Cambridge Analytica scandal

Following recent news reports on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Hurst will be rushing publication of Ctrl Alt Delete: How Politics and the Media Crashed Our Democracy by Tom Baldwin out in July.

The book was originally due to be published in November. Executive editor Jon de Peyer acquired World English rights from Rachel Conway of Georgina Capel Associates Ltd.

Journalist and one-time senior political advisor Baldwin roots the current crisis in the narrow and often self-serving relationship the media and politics has had with a technological revolution over the past three decades. He tells the "riveting—often terrifying—story" of how a tidal wave of information overwhelmed democracy's sandcastle defences.

​Ctrl Alt Del ​features first-hand interviews with leading political figures, including Tony Blair, Peter Mandelson, Michael Gove, Magrethe Vestager and Ed Miliband, as well as journalists, Russian bloggers, digital campaigners, American political strategists and executives from powerful tech companies like Google and Facebook. It includes new stories and fresh insights that have been missed amid the maelstrom of headlines about fake news, Russian hackers and shadowy data firms. 

De Peyer said: "This is an urgent and timely book. Tom’s rare combination of experience has given him access to some of the most influential figures in the media and politics, including those responsible for regulating our social networks, to unpick the real story behind the sensationalist headlines. Self-aware and candid, Ctrl Alt Del takes no prisoners in its diagnosis of what has gone wrong, and who is responsible."

Baldwin was director of communications and strategy for the Labour Party. He has spent 25 years working in and covering politics, including political editor at the Sunday Telegraph and Washington bureau chief at the Times.

In a similar move Bloomsbury Sigma is also bringing forward the publication of a related title: an investigation into how algorithms control our lives by leading mathematical modeler, David Sumpter.