Edward de Bono: Love Laterally is a biography that paints a vivid and layered portrait of the man who coined and championed the concept of lateral thinking. What inspired you to tell Edward de Bono’s story?

It is a zeitgeist story. It was a timely and important story to tell. We need to teach our children how to think not what to think in schools – and this book explains why and how. It’s more than a biography. Edward de Bono led the world of thinking for over half a century, encouraging people to think about their thinking. His ideas and views are even more relevant now than they were in the 1960s when he started to write the first of his sixty-six books. He resisted autobiography and biography because he didn’t want to get in the way of his ideas. He did not want to become the focus of attention, and journalists frustrated him, as he believed they (largely) focus on human angles, gimmicks, and attack, and often quoted him out of context. This is a shame as his ideas, as many of those I interviewed over the seven years, worked in real-world scenarios and made a lot of people very rich, both in their professional and personal lives.

He lived life to the full and was a global icon before it became relatively easy to be so, thanks to the internet. He dominated the world of ‘thinking’ and encouraged people to think about their thinking for over half a century. And he left behind him some very strong feelings. I knew him for the last ten years of his life, and I felt his passion for introducing lateral thinking lessons into schools was even more timely now that it was when he first suggested the idea back in the sixties. That is why I launched the book at the House of Lords, in front of distinguished guests, including Lord Bilimoria, Sir Anthony Seldon, Lord Woolley, Huw Levinson, Baroness Helena Kennedy as well as others interested in the thinking process, including Dr Alison Wood of Cambridge University and founder of Changemakers, Karen Chetwynd CEO Montessori Global, Nicola Tyler, who worked with Edward for years, advertising guru Dave Trott, and Dr Tara Swart who has written about the thinking process in her best-selling book as well.

What were some ideas that were important for you to share in this book?

Edward resisted a biography and autobiography as he didn’t want to get in the way of his ideas. He was a charismatic man, who was able to hold the attention of schoolchildren, and CEOs, politicians, and creatives alike. He achieved so much in his life, his bibliography is a chapter in its own right, but when I asked him how he wished to be remembered he replied ‘as a writer, and for doing good’. As Baroness Helena Kennedy states in the excellent foreword, he was a visionary, who’s ideas have yet to be fully appreciated.

Did you find anything in your research of this story that surprised you?

So many things. Some trivial, others more significant.

For example, I didn’t know during the sixties, he was at one point the most travelled person (by air) on the planet (with BA at least) and that you are told by BA when you have clocked up enough air miles.

There were also so many people from diverse backgrounds I didn’t realise who had been influenced by his ideas. Fashion icon, Sir Paul Smith, is a huge fan, and so is author and illustrator Shaun Tan, as are the Eurythmics (who thanked him on the cover of their Sweet Dreams album), and I only discovered this in the process of researching the book.

I also noted how many reports differed in the number of books he had written. Edward himself wasn’t sure, but I referred to his family and they said ‘sixty-six’.

What is one thing that you hope readers take away from Edward de Bono: Love Laterally?

I would like them to buy one of his books – perhaps a couple – which will make them think about their thinking. Everyone has a favourite that relates to their way of thinking, or the people they work with. Mine was the 1990 ‘I am Right You are Wrong’ which clearly identifies why critical thinking, argument, confrontation, and ego, get in the way of identifying solutions and lead to and encourage conflict, while lateral thinking encourages connection, collaboration, and communication as a way to identify solutions. Edward explains how and makes it fun and playful.

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