![]() What, you may reasonably ask, on this dying planet of ours at this moment of widespread argh and grr, would possess anyone to want to spend even a minute of their time reminding themselves of the past few years in British public life, from Brexit to the pandemic and beyond? Surely only a collection of Hyde’s livid, electrifying and viciously funny work for the Guardian. While you’re at it, pick up a copy of Marina Hyde’s equally excellent What Just Happened?!, a collection of newspaper columns that functions as a phantasmagoric running commentary on our whiplash lives and times. ![]() Maam Darling looks at her from many angles, creating a. This Christmas, don’t buy your dyspeptic uncle a novelty corkscrew, get him Haywire instead. To her friends Princess Margaret was witty and regal, to her enemies, she was rude and demanding. All these are learned, punchy, and to the point. Revel in the skewerings of puffed-up public figures (Richard Dawkins, Alan Yentob), but also make time for wise and witty considerations of British painters (Stanley Spencer), writers (Kingsley Amis) and even an American rock star (Bruce Springsteen). Come for the merciless takedowns of attention-seeking gargoyles of our times (Piers Morgan, Jacob Rees-Mogg), stay for the insightful pen-portraits of peculiar, and peculiarly English, comedy legends (Kenneth Williams, Peter Cook). Haywire is a handsomely jacketed collection of Brown’s satirical columns, essays, reviews and more from the past 15 years, for publications including the New Statesman, Vanity Fair and the New York Review of Books, as well as the Eye. ![]()
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