A great renaissance of public shaming is sweeping our land. Through social media, justice has been democratized and the silent majority are getting a voice. But are we using our voice for good?

Instead we are mercilessly finding people’s faults and defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those who position themselves outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.

In this prescient, unnerving yet often hilarious book, Jon Ronson meets the victims of modern public shamings and, in doing so, plunges us deep into the heart of a very modern terror: the terror of being found out. Full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws – and the very scary part we all play in it – this is Jon Ronson at his very best.

A Sunday Times Book of the Year when first published, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the best of modern literature.

The Men Who Stare at Goats reveals the extraordinary – and completely nutty – national secrets at the core of Bush’s government. Often funny, sometimes chilling and with first-hand access to the leading players, Jon Ronson’s Sunday Times bestseller is a story so unbelievable it has to be true.

In 1979, a secret unit was established by the most gifted minds within the US Army. Defying all known accepted military practice – and indeed, the laws of physics – they believed that a soldier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls and, perhaps most chillingly, kill goats just by staring at them.

Entrusted with defending America from all known adversaries, they were the First Earth Battalion. And they really weren’t joking. What’s more, in the early 2000s, they’re back and fighting George W. Bush’s War on Terror. But why are they blasting Iraqi prisoners-of-war with the theme tune to the Barney the Purple Dinosaur show? Why have one hundred de-bleated goats been secretly placed inside the Special Forces command centre at Fort Bragg, North Carolina? And how was the US military associated with the mysterious mass-suicide of a strange cult from San Diego?

Now a feature film starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor.

Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.

Fascinated by madness, strange behaviour and the human mind, Jon Ronson has spent his life exploring mysterious events and meeting extraordinary people. Collected from various sources, including GQ and The Guardian, Lost at Sea features the very best of his adventures.

Jon has been on patrol with America’s real-life superheroes and to a UFO convention in the Nevada desert with Robbie Williams. He has met a man who tried to split the atom in his kitchen and asked a conscious robot if she has a soul.

Frequently hilarious, sometimes disturbing, always entertaining – these fascinating stories of the chaos that lies on the fringes of our daily lives will have you wondering just what we’re capable of.

Now part of the Picador Collection, a series showcasing the very best of modern literature.

What if a tiny, shadowy elite rule the world from a secret room? In Them Jon Ronson sets out to find this room, with the help of the extremists – Islamic fundamentalists, neo-Nazis, Ku Klux Klansmen – that believe in it. Along the way, he is chased by men in dark glasses, unmasked as a Jew in the middle of a Jihad training camp, and witnesses international CEOs and politicians participate in a bizarre pagan ritual in the forests of northern California.

A Sunday Times bestseller and the book that launched Jon Ronson’s inimitable career, Them is an eye-opening outrageously funny exploration of extremism, which makes both author and reader think twice about the looking-glass world of ‘us’ and ‘them’ . . .

Part of the Picador Collection, a series celebrating fifty years of Picador books and showcasing the best of modern literature.

‘Chilling and hilarious . . . Ronson’s trademark laid-back attitude is a delight’ – The Independent

‘The belly laughs come thick and fast’ – The Observer
‘Chirpy, inquisitive, funny’ – Craig Brown

What if society wasn’t fundamentally rational, but was motivated by insanity? This thought sets Jon Ronson on an utterly compelling adventure into the world of madness.

Along the way, Ronson meets an array of fascinating individuals, from psychopaths and those affected by madness to the experts tasked with diagnosing it. He learns the art of psychopath-spotting from the influential psychologist who developed the eponymous test, revealing that madness may lie at the core of everything . . .

Combining Jon’s trademark humour, charm and investigative incision, The Psychopath Test is both entertaining and honest, unearthing dangerous truths and asking serious questions about how we define normality in a world where we are increasingly judged by our maddest edges.

‘It’s about the terror, isn’t it?’

‘The terror of what?’ I said.

‘The terror of being found out.’

The rise of social media has seen a great renaissance in public shaming. Justice has been democratized. The silent majority are getting a voice. But what are we doing with that voice? We are mercilessly finding people’s faults, and defining the boundaries of normality by ruining the lives of those outside it. We are using shame as a form of social control.

Simultaneously powerful and hilarious in the way only Jon Ronson can be, So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed is a deeply honest book about modern life, full of eye-opening truths about the escalating war on human flaws – and the very scary part we all play in it. This edition features a new chapter and interview with perhaps the most famous public shaming victim of all- Monica Lewinsky.

Part of the Picador Collection, a new series showcasing the best of modern literature.