EDWARD DE BONO

Journalist Tucker surveys the life of public intellectual Edward de Bono (1933-2021) in this nonfiction work.

De Bono was a Malta-born Rhodes Scholar, professor, and commentator, and the author of more than a dozen books that subtly reshaped the post-World War II academic landscape. He’s perhaps best known for his promotion of the concept of lateral thinking, which encourages academics and the public alike to break free of ideological paradigms to explore novel, nonlinear solutions to problems. De Bono, per author Tucker, “spent his life bursting bubbles.” As a professor affiliated with elite institutions of higher education, including Oxford and Harvard, he defied scholarly conventions. His audience extended beyond the realm of academia, but he often had tenuous relationships with journalists. Tucker emphasizes that this book is “not a straightforward biography” and suggests it might be better understood as a memoir. She met with de Bono on 25 occasions after meeting him at a party at Malta hotel in 2012, and she offers an intimate portrait of her subject from his own eclectic perspective. She blends de Bono’s personal reflections with commentary by those closest to him. De Bono’s ex-wife, Josephine, for instance, “talked candidly” to Tucker about his relationship with their adult children, and his longtime personal assistant, Justine Gaspar, connected Tucker to extended family and colleagues. Describing de Bono as “fun-loving” yet “disruptive,” the author provides insights into his personal life and how it informed his scholarship. His major works, such as 1985’s Six Thinking Hats, are ably covered, but it’s the private details, such as his fondness for joke telling, that make this book stand out. Tucker’s empathetic writing style brings her subject’s brilliant mind and eccentric personality to the fore. Her emphasis on engaging readers with humorous, sometimes-poignant anecdotes is enhanced by a wealth of photographs. A foreword by British politician and legal scholar Baroness Helena Kennedy highlights the multidisciplinary impact of de Bono’s lateral thinking on fields as disparate as the law and medical surgery.

An absorbing, intimate look at a late-20th-century Renaissance man.