Bookplate Author Event: Phil Elwood’s “All The Worst Humans: How I Made News for Dictators, Tycoons, and Politicians”

Phil Elwood

The Bookplate is continuing their 2024 season of author events at 7 pm, September 20th with Phil Elwood and his book, “All The Worst Humans”. Guests are welcome to join Phil and the Bookplate staff for a Friday evening at Sultana’s Lawrence Wetlands Preserve for a presentation and book signing. 

After nearly two decades in the Washington PR business, Elwood wants to come clean, by exposing the dark underbelly of the very industry that’s made him so successful. The first step is revealing exactly what he’s been up to for the past twenty years―and it isn’t pretty. Elwood has worked for a murderer’s row of questionable clients, including Gaddafi, Assad, and the government of Qatar. In All the Worst Humans, Elwood unveils how the PR business works, and how the truth gets made, spun, and sold to the public―not shying away from the gritty details of his unlikely career.

This is a piercing look into the corridors of money, power, politics, and control, all told in Elwood’s disarmingly funny and entertaining voice. He recounts a four-day Las Vegas bacchanal with a dictator’s son, plotting communications strategies against a terrorist organization in Western Africa, and helping to land a Middle Eastern dictator’s wife a glowing profile in Vogue on the same time the Arab Spring broke out. And he reveals all his slippery tricks for seducing journalists in order to create chaos and ultimately cover for politicians, dictators, and spies―the industry-secret tactics that led to his rise as a political PR pro.

Along the way, Phil walks the halls of the Capitol, rides in armored cars through Abuja, and watches his client lose his annual income at the roulette table. But as he moved up the ranks, he felt worse and worse about the sleaziness of it all―until Elwood received a shocking wake-up call from the FBI. This risky game nearly cost Elwood his life and his freedom. Seeing the light, Elwood decides to change his ways, and his clients, and to tell the full truth about who is the worst human..

“A rollicking, unexpectedly affecting story. . . It’s going to be one of the big, buzzy Beltway books of the year. ―Politico

“Hilarious and harrowing and hard to put down. Indeed, I didn’t put it down.” —Christopher Buckley, author of Thank You for Smoking

“If Hunter S. Thompson billed clients by the hour, it would look like All The Worst Humans. The pacing and storytelling propel the book’s epic sweep across the dark side of DC and global hot spots. Even the most experienced in PR will learn things they did not know, and Elwood’s gripping personal story is an unexpected and wild ride.”                —Bill McCarren, former executive director, National Press Club

Phil Elwood is a public relations operative. He was born in New York City, grew up in Idaho, and moved to Washington, DC at age twenty to intern for Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan. He completed his undergraduate degree from Georgetown University, and his graduate studies at the London School of Economics before starting his career at a small PR firm. Over the last two decades, Elwood has worked for some of the top – and bottom – PR firms in Washington. He lives in DC.

For more event details, or to reserve your seats, contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or [email protected]. These events are free and open to the public, but reservations are recommended. The Lawrence Wetlands Preserve is located at 301 S. Mill Street in Chestertown, Maryland. Please note that the Lawrence Preserve does not allow parking on site. Please call the Bookplate to plan ahead if you have mobility issues.  The Bookplate will continue their event series with Palestinian American author Susan Muaddi Darraj on Wednesday, October 2nd at The Kitchen and Pub at The Imperial.