Pinter & Martin picks up Dodsworth's Covid-19 exposé

Independent publisher Pinter & Martin will publish A State of Fear: How the UK Government Weaponised Fear During the Covid-19 Pandemic, journalist and author Laura Dodsworth's Covid-19 exposé.

The synopsis reads: "A State of Fear is a book about fear: fear of a virus. Fear of death. Fear of losing our jobs, our democracy, our human connections, our health and our minds. It's also about how the government weaponised our fear against us until we were the most frightened country in Europe. But why did the government deliberately frighten us, and how has this affected us as individuals and as a country? Ahead of any official inquiry into the handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Dodsworth explores all these questions and more, in a nuanced and thought-provoking discussion of an extraordinary year in British life and politics."

The book will feature interviews with psychologists, politicians, scientists, lawyers, Whitehall advisers and journalists and willl ultimately call for a more hopeful, transparent and effective democracy. It will be published on 21st June 2021, the projected date for the final UK lockdown measures to be lifted.

Martin Wagner, m.d., acquired world rights from the author. He commented: "Laura has published a trio of ground-breaking photography projects with Pinter & Martin. A State of Fear continues her bold and thought-provoking style to take a compelling and well-researched journey into a subject that affects us all profoundly."

Dodsworth added: "Fear is hardwired into humans and is part of our evolutionary success. But that also makes it one of the most powerful tools in the behavioural psychology toolbox and it has been used to manipulate and control people during the pandemic. I interviewed people who have been undone by fear, anxiety and isolation. I have also interviewed experts from different fields to understand how this campaign of fear was waged against the British people. It’s been a revelatory, fascinating and, at times, disturbing investigation. I hope A State of Fear starts a much needed conversation about the ethics and impacts of the behavioural psychology, manipulation and the strategy of fear that is so deeply embedded in government."

Dodsworth is an author, journalist, photographer and filmmaker. She has previously published three books with Pinter & Martin: Manhood: The Bare Reality (2017), Bare Reality: 100 Women, Their Breasts, Their Stories (2019) and Womanhood: The Bare Reality (2019).