Wake Up

Why the world has gone nuts

By: Piers Morgan

Narrated by: Piers Morgan

Length: 9 hrs and 33 mins

Publisher's summary

The Sunday Times Number One best seller.

If, like me, you’re sick and tired of being told how to think, speak, eat and behave, then this book is for you.

If, like me, you think common sense is being thrown out of the window, then this book is for you.

If, like me, you think the world’s going absolutely nuts, then this book is for you.

If, like me, you think NHS heroes and Captain Tom are the real stars of our society, not self-obsessed, tone-deaf celebrities (and royal renegades!), then this book is for you. If, like me, you’re sickened by the cancel culture bullies destroying people’s careers and lives, then this book is for you. From feminism to masculinity, racism to gender, body image to veganism, mental health to competitiveness at school, the right to free speech and expressing an honestly held opinion is being crushed at the altar of ‘woke’ political correctness.

In 2020, the world faced its biggest crisis in a generation: a global pandemic. In the UK, it exposed deep divisions within society and laid bare a toxic culture war that had been raging beneath the surface. From the outset, Piers Morgan urged the nation to come to its senses, once and for all, and held the government to often ferocious account over its handling of the crisis.

COVID-19 shed shocking light on the problems that plague our country. Stockpilers and lockdown-cheats revealed our grotesque levels of self-interest and the virtue-signalling woke brigade continued their furious assault on free speech, shutting down debate on important issues like gender, racism and feminism. Yet just as coronavirus exposed our flaws, it also showcased our strengths. We saw selfless bravery in the heroic efforts of our healthcare staff. A greater appreciation of migrant workers. A return of local community spirit. And inspiring, noble acts from members of the public such as Captain Sir Tom Moore.

Wake Up is Piers’ rallying cry for a united future in which we reconsider what really matters in life. It is a plea for the return of true liberalism, where freedom of speech is king. Most of all, it is a powerful account of how the world finally started to wake up, and why it mustn’t go back to sleep again.

©2020 Piers Morgan (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic reviews

"A fast, entertaining read." (The Guardian)

"A very timely trumpet blast." (Saga)

A fantastic read

10/10 I was facinated by the themes of the book. So glad that Piers narrated his book. It felt really personal, like having a nice debate with an old friend. Well done!

Changed my opinion of Piers

I wish there were future diary editions. Sad it stopped when things continued to beg his narrative.

Beyond excellent…

I couldn’t agree more with anyone on the planet than Piers Morgan. I’m not a leftie far from it, not a righty, far from it. I’ve been enormously frustrated with the division of today. Listening to Piers talk is pure therapy and his POV could not be more balanced. Kudos to you Piers Morgan.

Very good book

I do not always agree with the author but the book is well written and in general he makes very good points. I recommend this book.

Enjoyable listen

I throughly enjoyed listening to this -trying to get my very woke daughter to give it a go. I thought it offered a good perspective of liberalism as it stands today and gave me much to think about. I hope Piers makes peace with vegan sausages :-)

Common sense

I’m just trying to understand why “woke” is a thing at all.

Piers speaks his mind and makes great sense to me.

Many surprise facts that I will be researching.

Agree to disagree

I enjoyed most of the book and learned some things, disagreed with others but it boils down to freedom of speaks and the right to disagree and not be attacked for thinking the opposite. WHY should one side be better then the other? this is where a health debate should happen. Not all issues are on even ground but both sides should have the right to strive for what is best for humanity.

The Transgender issue has cross the line when it comes to WOMEN sports and women's sports only. It is not fair and will never be fair for biological men to compete against biological women's even if they are transgender. If MONEY, titles, awards and/or SCHOLORAHIPS are at stake then transgender females should be excluded. A transgender who was born male and gone though puberty has developed different the females and all the hormone therapist will not change that FACT. Develop the Transgender games and stop taking away from biologicals women.

The bottom line is we as society needs to think about humanity instead of who is better then who but that will never happen because money and power are the rule makes and normal humans can not change this fact. No matter what country politicians are only out for who gives them more money and not for the people.

Eh, it's all right

As a left-of-center American, I would say I agreed with about 80% of this book, while about 20% of it seemed to go too far in the other direction against things that I more or less find to be quite reasonable. But an 80% agreement rate's not bad.

That said, there wasn't anything to take away from this book. It was just a hubristic journo's self-righteous diatribe against other hubristic people's self-righteous diatribes. There are other books on the subject that take a deeper dive, offer food for thought, and genuinely leave the reader with something to contemplate and take into the world with them.

This book isn't that. This book is the ESPN version of books on "Cancel Culture." Which is fine. I'm not complaining. I was entertained, but not particularly stricken.

A Work For Our Times and of Our Times

A hundred years from now, our descendants will read this book to learn and study our times. Indeed, future historians have gained an insightful primary source through Pierce Morgan that will inform the future of our times today. This is rather disconcerting to say the least, since our times through woke culture has become absurdly and embarrassingly silly to the detriment of reason, common sense and freedom. The present reader might through this book do well to understand the workings of wok culture. Morgan argues that the woke tribunal is authoritative illiberal liberalism, yes, the opposite of what they proclaim to be. He marks liberals anything but tolerant as much as liberals believe they are whilst they scream and cancel people. Morgan notes the hypocrisy of the woke brigade and observes that, “Those who scream loudest about respect, tolerance and kindness tend to be the least respectful, tolerant and kind”. He tells wokees that, “If you can’t practice what you preach, then don’t preach at all”. Indeed, the self-righteousness, hypocrisy and small mindedness of wokees has led to a generation that can be dubbed The Age of Unreason. Morgan is correct to add that most of us are common sensical, and that wokees are actually a minority but who have a huge platform from where they sermonize loudly, cesure and publicly cancel. Piers Morgan urges that people observe the right of speech, and that an argument between two opposing sides can actually be a learning experience and one that is insightful and productive. To cancel, condemn, and un-platform is anything but democratic and much to do with authoritativeness. Morgan wrote a perceptive book that should be read today, and that will be read by our great great grandchildren in the future. Let’s hope that the former can learn from it, and let’s hope that the latter do not gasp and laugh too hard at us.


*The performance was excellent, it was ready by Morgan himself, and it is always a treat when the author reads his or her own non-fiction book.

Everyone should listen to this

Piers makes so much sense. We all should be able to have conversations with people who have different opinions than us AND respect their differing point of view.