WORLDVIEW: Pondering big what ifs…SA’s lucky escape from media dark arts

We're not yet half way through it, but there is no doubt 2017 will be expensive London PR consultancy Bell Pottinger's annus horribilis. The agency which made a fortune peddling the US-line to Iraqis has been tripped up by getting involved with the crony capitalist Gupta family – and the kickback from an angry nation on the Southern tip of Africa.

It's pleasant for many to reflect on the troubles of these experts in media's dark arts, but as our Biznews colleague Quentin Wray asks today, what if they had been able to get away with it? As we often do, he draws inspiration for today's contribution from an excellent book now on my Christmas gift list ("to self" of course).

Quentin writes: "In the fascinating, albeit Euro- and US-centric book edited by historian Robert Cowley entitled "What if? Military Historians imagine what might have been"*, we are taken through to a world where Alexander the Great died before conquering the known world, the Spanish armada defeated the English, the US lost their war of independence, Winston Churchill didn't survive being hit by a taxi, and D-Day was a failure.

___STEADY_PAYWALL___