Michael Booth is the best selling, award-winning author of five non-fiction books. The latest, 'The Almost Nearly Perfect People: Behind the Myth of the Scandinavian Utopia', has just been released in the USA in hardback, in the UK in paperback and is, or will be, available in ten international editions.

The book explores the five Nordic countries - Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Iceland - looking at the factors which have helped make them among the world's most high-achieving societies, top of international lists ranking everything from happiness and wellbeing, to equality and education, corruption, freedom and wealth.

It also looks at the darker aspects of these lands - social and political conformity, problems with integration, alcoholism, the rise of the far right, complacency and salty liquorice. How did the Nordic countries become modern utopias for the global media, and do they live up to the hype?