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Trip to the Moon
  • Published: 29 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781802062298
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 416

Trip to the Moon

Understanding the True Power Of Story

Formats & editions
EBook
29 Jan 2026
Audiobook
29 Jan 2026
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A masterclass in telling stories - and how they shape our world - from the internationally renowned narrative expert

To command narrative is to control a sometimes frightening power. What is it that turbocharges some tales, and how is it possible to harness that potency?

John Yorke’s groundbreaking bestseller, Into the Woods, revolutionised our understanding of story structure. This new book delves deeper into how to put that structure to work in the world. Trip to the Moon takes us on a journey not just through drama and fiction but through politics, religion and non-western narrative. Through these terrains, Yorke seeks out the role of story in all our lives, examining how to utilise its lessons to create life-changing tales – and, in a world aflame with conspiracy theories, to guard ourselves against their darker purpose too.

Revealing the artful symmetry and underlying principles that connect Summer beach reads to Classical Chinese poetry, superhero flicks to Russian arthouse, and classical rhetoric to state propaganda, Yorke makes dazzling connections that show how stories have the power to transfigure the chaos of our existence into a new equilibrium, and make the world anew.
  • Published: 29 January 2026
  • ISBN: 9781802062298
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 416
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Also by John Yorke

Into the Woods
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Praise for Trip to the Moon

Praise for Into the Woods: The best book on the subject… Yorke's analysis is superb

Evening Standard

Its strength is Yorke’s acute perception of the wellsprings of universal narrative structures relevant to all artistic activities

The Times

Brilliant

Ken Follett

While he elegantly untangles the deepest roots of storytelling, he also honours the human need for truth and sense with some more superficial questions

Guardian

Fresh, enlightening and accessible . . . a gripping read from beginning to end

Sunday Times

What do conspiracy theories, populist politicians, Harry Potter and reality TV all have in common? They all depend on the power of story. In this invaluable book, John Yorke uncovers the narratives that help us make sense of the world – and offers an antidote to paint-by-numbers screenwriting manuals. You'll learn something new on every page

Helen Lewis