Do you wonder where it’s all going to end? Does the word 'celebrity’ sound like a great name for a fifth horseman of the apocalypse? Do you doubt there’s even time to build a fallout shelter? Then this book is for you: an invaluable primer to the celebriscape, a world expanding twice as fast as the universe it inhabits.

          Celebrity is a coruscating, hilarious, thinking person’s guide to a world in which it is considered reasonable that Angelina Jolie advises on the Iraqi reconstruction effort, Charlie Sheen analyses 9/11, and in which Jude Law’s views on the Taliban are taken seriously. Anatomising every aspect of our crazed world, Celebrity tackles the big topics, including 'Celebrity Activism – when celebrities care’, 'Celebrities and the Middle East: a troubled region’s brightest hope?’, and 'Celebrity Religions: who do the worshipped worship?’.

          Celebrity also provides indispensible resources: a glossary of common words or expressions – such as 'She’s suffering from exhaustion’ (She has a prescription painkiller problem), 'She has a prescription painkiller problem’ (She has a coke problem) and so on – and a diagram of a generic celebrity entourage, clearly explaining the precise role of every nutritionist, lawyer and canine beautician. Celebrity is a roadmap, a survivalist’s guide, a Rosetta Stone for our times: you are not equipped to engage with the world without a copy.