We are plagued by leaders who mislead and repress - it is more important than ever to stand up to them.

The Covid-19 catastrophe has exposed the fabulists who rule throughout the world, in dictatorships, democracies and hybrids of the two. The misinformation they spread and the fake policy solutions they tout have become their own pandemic.

Here, Michael Peel vividly recounts ferocious international battles over truth and the right to tell it. From Britain's struggle with itself over Brexit to Syria's civil war, he reveals the trademark deceptions and the powerful interests that profit from them in the defining fight of an era.