Malcolm Gladwell

It's always dangerous to hear a good author speak. Some extremely concise writers turn out to be sprawling and chaotic in speech. Obviously the editing process is tremendously helpful for this type of person, and after seeing them live you won't be able to read their writing in quite the same way. Of course that's not true of everyone - sometimes what you read is what you get. And, very rarely, meeting someone in the flesh is an even richer experience than you expected from the page.

Malcolm Gladwell is a very good speaker. He knows how to set up details in a story so when he comes back to them you know what he means. He knows how to speak in chapters, how to set a scene in a specific time and place, how to introduce you to characters efficiently and how, if the human dimension of the story makes sense, anyone can understand the complexities of drug trials and scientific concepts.

But I'd done him a disservice: from his books I'd imagined someone who got excited and leapt around the stage, and he's not like that. He's much more measured. Yes, he's fascinated by people and wants to know how they tick, but he doesn't just observe, he actually cares.

The topic for the evening was Serendipity in Science, focusing on a particular biotech company investigating a cancer cure, but it also took in what makes a good teacher, the human drama of medical research, and other obliquely related details.

Like a good gospel musician, Gladwell knows how to involve an audience emotionally as well as academically in his story and how, in order to get his point across, to manipulate the mood of his listeners.

One other note - for English audiences rather than cosmopolitan Manhattanites, the first time I heard this accent was from Tom Lehrer, which makes for a slightly ironic edge to whatever Gladwell says! Of course these resonances for me are not under his control, but Gladwell's flashes of humour might well come from the same vein as Lehrer's.

I came away thinking of all the other things I'd like Gladwell to write about. I'm well aware that he uses the human element in quite a deliberate way, and that he doesn't always stick to the central point of his topic, and that the element of moral encouragement isn't to everyone's taste, but all the same I think he's a good man. And whichever strange idea he's going to define and then explore next, I'll take it from him that it's worth looking into.

Jen Pawsey (DI Reviewer), 11/05/10

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If Malcolm Gladwell is anything like as much fun in person as he is in print then his visit to the New Theatre should be really entertaining! Gladwell is well known for his books about social behaviour, among them Blink, The Tipping Point and Outliers: The Story of Success. His new tour promotes his latest fruit: What the Dog Saw: and Other Adventures.

Gladwell's power is in defining (with compelling enthusiasm) a phenomenon you'd never even considered, explaining his research and regaling the reader with anecdotes. He's terrifically easy to read, and if occasionally he's got so excited by a story that his argument becomes a little tenuous, well at least by the time you've noticed you've gained some nugget of knowledge.

In Blink, Gladwell argued for the power of instinctual thinking: making decisions immediately can be as powerful and accurate as decisions made slowly, rationally and consciously.

The Tipping Point discusses how some ideas take off and become social epidemics while other, sometimes better, ideas fail to get off the ground. It includes fascinating research about Sesame Street and how well it taught the alphabet, snippets of American history, a self-test to see how sociable you are, and many other thought-provoking points.

Possibly my favourite of his works is Outliers. Here he looks at immensely successful people - Bill Gates and the like. He argues that they don't just come out of nowhere, but are propelled by a mixture of personal and social factors. It takes, apparently, 10,000 hours to become an expert. That's violinists, shotputters, computer programmers or history researchers. Whatever your discipline and natural talent, practice really does make perfect. Luck does play its part - which era you're born in, who you know, where you live - these do matter, but the most important thing is what you do.

Perhaps that's what makes Gladwell's message so compelling: its optimism. We have the power to change our lives, and understanding how things work a little better can give us an idea how to do it. In the end it's a fairy-tale message, but also true. No wonder he has so many fans under his spell.

Malcolm Gladwell brings his mad hair and enthusiasm to the New Theatre on Monday 10th May to discuss curiosity and new ways of looking at the world. Special ticket price of £10.50 if you quote "DailyInfo" when booking.

Jen Pawsey (DI Reviewer), 07/05/10

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