In 1979, a secret unit was established by the US Army. Defying all known military practices and the laws of physics, they believed that a soldier could adopt a cloak of invisibility, pass cleanly through walls, and kill goats just by staring at them. They were the First Earth Battalion.

While Jon Ronson attempts to locate the secret room, he is chased by men in dark glasses, and witnesses CEOs and leading politicians undertake a bizarre pagan owl ritual in the forests of Northern California. He also learns some alarming things about the looking-glass world of them and us. Are the extremists right? Or has he become one of them?

Why are Iraqi prisoners of war being forced to listen to Barney the Purple Dinosaur's theme tune repeatedly, at top volume? Has the US army really enlisted the help of Uri Geller? This book searches for answers to these and other questions, revealing some of the beliefs at the core of the War on Terror.

Demonstrates how our everyday lives are determined by the craziest thoughts and obsessions; how we spend our time believing in and getting worked up by complete nonsense. This book explores manifestations of insanity in the world.

Since 1996 Stephen Gill has been making serial studies of mundane British scenes and objects. His visual approach in unique, and has already been widely apprecicated in Granta.

A collection of Jon's Guardian features, with a common theme: the ways in which people get themselves into wholly irrational bubbles, within which all manner of lunacy makes perfect sense.