Ben Davis

You know how it is when your dad's an evil super villain? OK, so maybe you don't, but Danny does. As heir to the Dread dynasty, he's expected to carry on the family business of kidnapping world leaders, maiming innocent bystanders, and brainwashing sharks. You know, general evil stuff. The problem is, achieving world domination isn't Danny's idea of fun. In fact, he'd much rather be saving the planet than enslaving it. But when Dad Dread hatches his most diabolical scheme yet, Danny realizes that to defeat evil, he's going to have to start thinking evil . . .

Hello blog! It's the start of another term and there are three things that SUCK about my life: 1. I am STILL sharing a bedroom with my step-brother Gav (AKA Shrek's stinkier twin). 2. My mum is 6 months pregnant and therefore cabbage-kickingly MENTAL. 3. I'm about to have a high speed rail line (i.e. brace) installed in my gob! The only non-sucky thing is that I've got a GIRLFRIEND! A real one! Who actually wants to SNOG me!!! The problem is her dad officially HATES MY GUTS and is determined to make my life a LIVING HELL. Oh, and this smarmy loser called Seb is trying to steal her off me with his rubbish DJ skills. There's just one thing for it - me and my best mates Harry and Ad are going to have to enter the same DJ competition as Seb and WIN! What could POSSIBLY go wrong? The hilarious sequel to The Private Blog of Joe Cowley.

The brilliantly funny and cringe-worthy secret blog of 14-year-old Joe Cowley (wannabe comic artist and self-confessed repeller of girls): Sunday 1st January So here's the thing. I've decided to start writing a blog. A private one. The idea is that it'll help me sort my life out, because quite frankly, it can't get much worse . . . · I gained the nickname Puke Skywalker after vomiting over Louise Bentley on the waltzer. · I am subjected to daily wedgies by my arch-enemy Gav James. · My so-called best mates are trying to get me killed in a bid to win £250 on You've Been Framed. This cannot go on. I have to do something, or I'll end up like Mad Morris down the park who thinks he's Jesus. By the end of next term, I'm going to be a completely different person. At least, that's the theory...

At the age of twenty-two, Ben Davis weighed over 360 pounds. Depressed, addicted to food, and morbidly obese, he thought he'd lost all hope. But after a conversation with his grandmother, Ben promised himself that he would finally take control of his life. Ben decided to "do life," and so can you. He started running. At first, he couldn't run a mile, but before long he was running five, ten, and then twenty miles at a time. His father and brother joined him, and as a team they ran a marathon and went on to complete one of the hardest physical competitions in the world, the Ironman. Throughout his journey, Ben captured his transformation in a series of YouTube videos, inspiring countless others around the world to "do life" along with him. Here, Ben shares more of his personal story and illustrates how you can use his techniques to start living your own life to the fullest. Do Life isn't just about diet or exercise, depression or addiction--it's about stepping out of your ordinary life and becoming who you want to be. It's the story of one man who decided to live life his way. And it could be your story too.

Ben Davis is the editor of Artinfo, one of the world's most popular resources for information and discussion on arts and culture. As a critic, he has become painfully aware of the role that class plays in art. 9.5 Theses on Art and Class seeks to show how a clear understanding of class makes sense of what is at stake in a broad number of contemporary art's most persistent debates, from definitions of political art, to the troubled status of outsider' and street art, to the question of how we maintain faith in art itself in a dysfunctional world.'