Book excerpt: The first book from one of England's most effective and best-known political activists, also a highly successful stand-up comedian, is a deeply funny and disturbing account ofhis rampage through the arms trade. Under a fairly flimsy disguise and with the use of some worryingly poor accents, Mark Thomas managed to set himself up as an arms exporter and set off on a journey of discovery in the company of arms dealers, torture victims, politicians, cops, and more. The result is a shockingly entertaining read. Embedded within the sharpness of his humor is the truth of an industry fraught with loopholes, complacency, and greed, which allows corrupt regimes to kill, maim, and displace, but whose deals are often subsidized by taxpayers. This book is hard-hitting, laugh-out-loud funny, and extremely unsettling at all the same time."