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A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World

The hilarious and fascinating new book from the international bestselling author of HUMANS
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( 118 ratings, 18 reviews)
Brief Description
Superb ... entertaining ... Phillips traverses this sprawling terrain with energy and charm Telegraph Exceptionally funny from cover to cover, it is not only an entertaining read but also deeply researched and thoughtful Irish Independent Fans of Phillips's earlier books Humans and Truth will be pleased... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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International bestseller Tom Phillips (Humans; Truth; Conspiracy) is back with a fascinating and hilarious look at armageddon through the ages, and our 3,000 years of getting it wrong (so far...)

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Superb ... entertaining ... Phillips traverses this sprawling terrain with energy and charm Telegraph

Exceptionally funny from cover to cover, it is not only an entertaining read but also deeply researched and thoughtful Irish Independent

Fans of Phillips's earlier books Humans and Truth will be pleased that the ex-BuzzFeed editor is on form, not letting the grimness of his subject spoil his gagsmithery Guardian

A great read ... [Phillips] fills his timeline of unfilled apocalypses with wry humour New Scientist

Do you feel like we're living in the end times? Does it seem like everything is on fire, and one disaster follows another?

Here's a small comfort: you're not the first to feel that way. If there's one thing that people throughout history have agreed on, it's that history wasn't going to be around for much longer.

This book is about the apocalypse, and how humans have always believed it to be very f*cking nigh. Across thousands of years, we'll meet weird cults, failed prophets and mass panics, holy warriors leading revolts in anticipation of the last days, and suburbanites waiting for aliens to rescue them from a doomed Earth. We'll journey back to the 'worst period to be alive', as the world reeled from a simultaneous pandemic and climate crisis. And we'll look to the future to ask the unnerving question: how might it all end?

But it's also a book about how we live in a world where catastrophe is always looming - whether it's a madman with a nuclear button or the slow burn of environmental collapse. Because when we talk about the end of the world, what we really mean is the end of our world. Our obsession with doomsday is really about change: our fear of it, and our desire for it, and how - ultimately - we can find hope in it.

Praise for the Brief History series:

Uproarious . . . Abundant good humour The Times

Witty, entertaining and slightly distressing... You should probably read it Sarah Knight, author of The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck

Brilliant. Utterly, utterly brilliant Jeremy Clarkson

Very funny Mark Watson

Both readable and entertaining Telegraph

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781035402212

Publisher: Headline Publishing Group

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 31 July 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Wildfire

Audience: General / adult, Tertiary education, Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Width: 129.0mm

Height: 198.0mm

Weight: 41g

Pages: 384

About the Author

Tom Phillips is an author and journalist. He's worked as the editor of Full Fact and editorial director of BuzzFeed UK. Books in Tom's internationally bestselling Brief History series have been translated into more than thirty-five languages. A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World is his fourth book. Tom lives in Cornwall with an exponentially growing number of spider plants.

Also by Tom Phillips

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  • Conspiracy
    'Uproarious . . . [Phillips and Elledge] pair the abundant good humour of this book with a warning about the corrosive effects of conspiracy theories' The Times From the Satanic Panic to the anti-vaxx movement, the moon landing to Pizzagate, it's always been human nature to believe we're being lied to by the powers that be (and sometimes, to be...
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  • Truth
    'TOM PHILLIPS IS A VERY CLEVER, VERY FUNNY MAN' Greg Jenner This is a book about TRUTH - and all the ingenious ways, throughout history, that we've managed to avoid it. We live in a 'post-truth' age, we're told. The US has a president who openly lies on a daily basis (or who doesn't even know what's true, and doesn't...
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  • The Essential Minecraft Dungeons Guide (Independent & Unofficial)
    The Essential Minecraft Dungeons Guide is full of game-busting tips and info on magic, weapons, combat skills, multiplayer tricks and more. It's all you need to defeat the Arch-Illager and save the day! No two games of Minecraft Dungeons are the same, so you're going to need this independent and unofficial handbook to find out everything about the best weapons,...
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  • Humans
    'F*cking brilliant' Sarah Knight 'Very funny' Mark Watson An exhilarating journey through the most creative and catastrophic f*ck-ups of human history, from our very first ancestor falling out of that tree, to the most spectacular fails of the present day. In the seventy thousand years that modern human beings have walked this earth, we've come a long way. Art, science,...
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  • A Humument
    The final edition of the late Tom Phillips's defining masterpiece of postmodernism. In 1966, the artist Tom Phillips discovered A Human Document (1892), an obscure Victorian romance by W.H. Mallock, and set himself the task of altering every page, by painting, collage or cut-up techniques, to create an entirely new version. Some of Mallock's original text remains intact, and through...
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  • A Brief History of the End of the F*cking World
    Do you feel like we're living in the end times? Does it seem like everything is on fire, and one disaster follows another? Here's a small comfort: you're not the first to feel that way. If there's one thing that people throughout history have agreed on, it's that history wasn't going to be around for much longer. This book is...
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