David Edmonds

David is a frustrated philosopher whose day job is to make radio documentaries for the BBC, several of which have won awards. His most popular programme was entitled, Can God make a breakfast so big He can’t eat it?

His co-written works with John Eidinow are the international best seller Wittgenstein’s Poker - for which Bill Clinton acted as unpaid promoter, Bobby Fischer Goes To War about the most notorious match in the history of chess, and Rousseau’s Dog about the clash between the 18th century thinkers, Jean-Jacques Rousseau and David Hume.

David has two philosophy degrees from Oxford University, and a PhD in moral philosophy from the Open University, which came out as a book, ‘Caste Wars’. He has held fellowships at the universities of Chicago and Michigan

Jean-Jacques Rousseau - philosopher, novelist, composer, educationist, political provocateur - was on the run. He was fleeing intolerance, persecution, and enemies who proclaimed him a madman, dangerous to society. David Hume, the foremost philosopher in the English language, universally praised as a model of decency, came to his aid. He brought Rousseau and his beloved little dog Sultan to England. And then it all went horribly wrong.

In "Rousseau's Dog", David Edmonds and John Eidinow bring their narrative verve to the bitter quarrel that turned these two Enlightenment giants into mortal foes. The result is a story of celebrity and its price, of shameless spin, of destroyed reputations and shattered friendships. It is a story of two men whose writings would forever shape our world, but whose personalities and ideas could scarcely have had less in common. And it is a very human story of compassion, treachery, anger and revenge.