A book for our times, The Authenticity Playbook offers insights and tactics for the pursuit of authenticity in our everyday lives.

We are increasingly searching for authenticity in a world that seems ever more inauthentic.

We live in an age where the pursuit of authenticity – be it living our ‘best life’ or eating artisan-produced food – matters more and more to us, but where the forces of inauthenticity – from internet scams and art forgeries to counterfeit pharmaceuticals and brands that offer impossible dreams of self-fulfilment – seem to be inexorably taking over.

Using a series of richly entertaining stories to make its serious point, this provocative and award-winning book explores what is driving the slide into ever more make-believe – how we have come to live in a world full of people and products that are not what they seem to be, where we no longer know whether we are talking to a person or to a machine – and sheds light on what we can do to fight back.

At the core of The Authenticity Playbook is the belief that although deceit is part of our biological and social wiring, driven by fundamental forces of evolution and economics and amplified by 21st century technology, we can come together to reclaim reality. In twelve rich and compelling stories, Alice introduces us to the world’s greatest imposter, who finally became what he pretended to be; Nature’s impeccable mimics; the wartime counterfeiter who fooled a nation into rewriting its history; the artist who encouraged people to forge his pictures; the ‘authentic’ brand that was anything but. But we also meet the people living unexpectedly real and rewarding lives in virtual worlds, and the foot soldiers in the ‘armies of truth’ who are taking down today’s conspiracies and cons.

A book for our times, The Authenticity Playbook offers insights and tactics for the pursuit of authenticity in our everyday lives.