Kampfner’s 'provocative' Why the Germans Do It Better goes to Atlantic

John Kampfner’s “provocative” exploration of Germany, Why the Germans Do It Better: Lessons from a Grown-Up Country, has been acquired by Atlantic Books. 

UK Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights to the former New Statesman editor’s book were acquired by editorial director Mike Harpley from Andrew Gordon at David Higham Associates.

“Mixing personal journey and anecdote with compelling empirical evidence, this is a searching and entertaining exploration of the country that Britons love to hate. Raising important questions for post-Brexit Britain, Kampfner will ask why Germany has become a model for others to emulate, while we still languish in wartime nostalgia and fail to tackle contemporary challenges,” said the publisher. 

Kampfner is an award-winning author, journalist and broadcaster. In his varied career, he has been editor of the New Statesman and chief political correspondent of the Financial Times. Fluent in German and Russian, he was the Daily Telegraph's Berlin correspondent when the wall came down and the country unified. He went on to become Moscow bureau chief, covering the collapse of communism. His five previous books include the best-selling Blair's Wars (S&S), and Freedom For Sale (S&S), which was shortlisted for the Orwell Prize.

Harpley said: “As one of the most respected journalists in Britain today – and as a committed but not unquestioning Germanophile – John Kampfner is the perfect author to explore our complicated relationship with the country. This is an urgently needed and very commercial book that will provoke and inform in equal measure.”

Why the Germans Do It Better: Lessons from a Grown-Up Country will be published in hardback and eBook in April 2020.