“Harkness has the perfect combination of wit, charm and statistical insight to crunch big data. It's the book about stats, life and big data we've all been waiting for.”
Matt Parker, Stand-up Mathematician
“A wonderful collection of fascinating data stories, all told in Timandra's smart and chatty style. But this book also asks the important questions. If big data brings new opportunities, just what are the implications?”
Hannah Fry, Mathematician, University College London
“This book is a great read - full of interesting stories and fun interviews. But it is not just another credulous tale of technological wonders - Harkness is suitably sceptical of the hype about data analytics, and serious about the challenges it brings.”
David Spiegelhalter, Winton Professor for the Public Understanding of Risk, University of Cambridge, and author of Sex by Numbers.
Timandra Harkness
Presenter, Writer & Lapsed Comedian
Big Data: does size matter?

Big Data knows where you’ve been and who your friends are. It knows what you like and what makes you angry. It can predict what you’ll buy, where you’ll be the victim of crime and when you’ll have a heart attack. Big Data knows you better than you know yourself, or so it claims.But how well do you know big data?From science to smart cities, business to politics, self-quantification to the Internet of Things, people are talking about big data as a force for change. Privacy, democracy, even our ideas of who we are, could be transformed.

But you don't need to be a Silicon Valley tech prodigy to understand what's going on. Timandra writes comedy, not computer code. The only programs she makes are on the radio. If you can read a newspaper, you can read this book.

This book takes you from the basics - what IS data? What makes it Big? - all the way to the big questions about where big data is taking us: is it too big for its boots, or does it think too small? Are you a data point or a human being? Will this book be full of rhetorical questions?

No. It also contains puns, unlikely stories, engaging people, inspiring feats & thought-provoking dilemmas. Leaving you armed and ready to decide what you think about one of the decade’s big ideas: big data.

Published June 2nd 2016 by Bloomsbury Sigma. Order the hardback, e-book, paperback or audiobook.

Why should you care? Give me 5 minutes to convince you:

For writing enquiries, please contact my agent Will Francis at Janklow & Nesbit.