Tom Baker – författare

For much of the twentieth century, industrialized nations addressed social problems, such as workers' compensation benefits and social welfare programs, in terms of spreading risk. But in recent years a new approach has emerged: using risk both as a way to conceive of and address social problems and as an incentive to reduce individual claims on collective resources. Embracing Risk explores this new approach from a variety of perspectives. The first part of the book focuses on the interplay between risk and insurance in various historical and social contexts. The second part examines how risk is used to govern fields outside the realm of insurance, from extreme sports to policing, mental health institutions, and international law. Offering an original approach to risk, insurance, and responsibility, the provocative and wide-ranging essays in Embracing Risk demonstrate that risk has moved well beyond its origins in the insurance trade to become a central organizing principle of social and cultural life.

For much of the twentieth century, industrialized nations addressed social problems, such as workers' compensation benefits and social welfare programs, in terms of spreading risk. But in recent years a new approach has emerged: using risk both as a way to conceive of and address social problems and as an incentive to reduce individual claims on collective resources. Embracing Risk explores this new approach from a variety of perspectives. The first part of the book focuses on the interplay between risk and insurance in various historical and social contexts. The second part examines how risk is used to govern fields outside the realm of insurance, from extreme sports to policing, mental health institutions, and international law. Offering an original approach to risk, insurance, and responsibility, the provocative and wide-ranging essays in Embracing Risk demonstrate that risk has moved well beyond its origins in the insurance trade to become a central organizing principle of social and cultural life.

American health care is in crisis because of exploding medical malpractice litigation. Insurance premiums for doctors and malpractice lawsuits are skyrocketing, rendering doctors both afraid and unable to afford to practice medicine. Undeserving victims sue at the drop of a hat, egged on by greedy lawyers, and receive eye-popping awards that insurance companies, hospitals, and doctors struggle to pay. The plaintiffs and lawyers always win; doctors, and the nonlitigious, always lose; and affordable health care is the real victim. This, according to Tom Baker, is the myth of medical malpractice, and as a reality check he offers "The Medical Malpractice Myth", a stunning dismantling of this familiar, but inaccurate, picture of the health care industry. Are there too many medical malpractice suits? No, according to Baker; there is actually too much medical malpractice, with only a fraction of the cases ever seeing the inside of a courtroom. Is too much litigation to blame for the malpractice insurance crisis? No, for that we can look to financial trends and competitive behavior in the insurance industry.Point by point, Baker - a leading authority on insurance and law - pulls together research that demolishes the myths that have taken hold and suggests a series of legal reforms that would help doctors manage malpractice insurance while also improving patient safety and medical accountability. "The Medical Malpractice Myth" is a book aimed squarely at general readers but with radical conclusions that speak to the highest level of domestic policymaking.

'Grotesque and depraved and above all very funny.' Ardal O'HanlonRobert Caligari is a thoroughly evil thirteen-year-old who gets his kicks from kicking pigs. Afer a humiliating episode with a bacon butty, Robert realizes just how much he loathes the human race - and his revenge is truly terrible. This subversive horror-fantasy from Tom Baker (ex-monk, ex-sailor, and the ultimate Doctor Who) is outrageous and funny, and since the hardback was published in 1999 has gone on to become a cult classic. It is illustrated throughout with b/w line drawings from David Roberts.

In March 2014, Tom Baker sat down with Nicholas Briggs to look back over his 80 amazing years - his youth, his early acting career, his great success with Doctor Who and beyond... and his return to his most famous role with Big Finish.

THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLERWhat are you afraid of?In his first-ever Doctor Who novel, Tom Baker’s incredible imagination is given free rein. A story so epic it was originally intended for the big screen, Scratchman is a gripping, white-knuckle thriller almost forty years in the making.The Doctor, Harry and Sarah Jane Smith arrive at a remote Scottish island, when their holiday is cut short by the appearance of strange creatures – hideous scarecrows, who are preying on the local population. The islanders are living in fear, and the Doctor vows to save them all. But it doesn’t go to plan – the time travellers have fallen into a trap, and Scratchman is coming for them. With the fate of the universe hanging in the balance, the Doctor must battle an ancient force from another dimension, one who claims to be the Devil. Scratchman wants to know what the Doctor is most afraid of. And the Doctor’s worst nightmares are coming out to play…

Policy making is more globally connected today than ever before. Policy ideas, experiences and expertise circulate rapidly over great distances. But who is involved in distributing policy, how do they do it, and through which arenas? This book examines the work involved in policy circulation, and as the first genuinely transdisciplinary collection on policy circulation, it offers an insight into the globally dispersed yet interconnected nature of contemporary policy making and the transdisciplinary future of policy circulation studies. Bringing together international scholars and multidisciplinary perspectives, this book showcases theoretical approaches from across the social sciences, and offers empirical perspectives from around the world. Synthesizing related literatures on policy transfer, diffusion and mobility, and assessing their differences and commonalities, this book proposes ways to foster transdisciplinary dialogue. Including a range of case studies, from both the Global North and South, Public Policy Circulation provides a succinct understanding and critique of the Global policy transfer, diffusion and mobility through the lens of arenas, agents and actions.This book will be a vital tool for academics and students of political science, public policy, public administration, international relations, geography, urban studies, sociology and anthropology alike, with its up-to-date coverage of contemporary policy circulation, and developments in the theory of global policy movement and adoption. It will also be of interest to practitioners in government agencies and NGOs, providing insight into their increasing role in both the national and international transfer and dispersal of policies.Contributors include: T. Baker, M.I. Dussauge-Laguna, R. Jolkkonen, O. Löblová, P. McGuirk, S. Montero, M. Morais de Sá e Silva, A. Rusu, T. Soremi, J. Spence, C. Walker, A. Wood