"Damian Platt is blessed with an intimate insider's knowledge of Brazil, especially of Rio de Janeiro, and he has employed that knowledge to devastating effect in "Nothing by Accident: Brazil on the Edge". In a highly original narrative that includes colorful accounts of his own deep immersions into Carioca life - from his participation in a Carnaval samba school to his friendship with the assassinated political activist Marielle Franco - Platt offers unparalleled glimpses into the ties that bind Rio's criminal underworld, its political class, and the police death squads that enforce the status quo. Highly readable, highly recommended"

- Jon Lee Anderson, author of Che: A Revolutionary Life, The Fall of Baghdad and New Yorker staff writer.

Speaker bio

Damian Platt studied modern languages at Edinburgh University. He subsequently spent eighteen months working with Redemptorist Catholic missionaries in Tocantins, in the northern interior of Brazil. There followed eight years at the International Secretariat of Amnesty International in London. In 2005, he relocated to Rio de Janeiro to work for AfroReggae, a favela-based youth and culture organisation, which he described in his book Culture is Our Weapon, co-authored with Patrick Neate. Later he teamed up with TED prizewinning French artist JR to work on his Women are Heroes project in Rio. In 2019, he mobilised a team of local and international volunteers to build a world-class skate park in the Maré favela complex. In 2011, he was awarded an MBE by the Foreign Office of the British Government, for "services to community development and human rights" in Rio de Janeiro. He is a qualified teacher in the UK, since completing the Teach First leadership programme in 2018.