James Bartholomew read history at Oxford and then went into merchant banking. He soon decided to switch to journalism, working first for the Financial Times and then the Far Eastern Economic Review, based in Hong Kong and then Tokyo. His experience of the rapid economic growth in Hong Kong made a strong impression on him. It also formed a vivid contrast with the poverty and political oppression he witnessed in communist China and the Soviet Union as he travelled back to England in 1982 on the Trans-Siberian railway. Since that time, he has been a freelance journalist, a consultant on Eastern Europe for an investment company and a leader-writer for the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. During his time as a leader-writer, he became increasingly aware of the power of welfare states to change the nature of society. He has written for many publications and appeared on numerous radio stations and television programmes including Radio 5 live, Newsnight, Radio 4's Today programme, Moral Maze and special broadcasts concerning his previous book and his critique of the National Health Service. His other books include The Welfare State We're In, The Richest Man in the World: Sultan of Brunei and Yew and Non-yew. He lives in west London.