What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times (The Sunday Times Bestseller)

Product Information

On a small feed day, its the kittens - usually little celebrities, outré or struggling in someway, with some dubious claim to plausibility or fame, tottering on their high heels these (often) silly girls are delivered though the hatch to the famished she-wolf of the Guardian newspaper. Columns from the inimitable Marina Hyde from 2016-2022: if you haven't read her, feast your eyes on quotations below and rest assured, there's plenty more of this sardonic commentary. In the interests of our sanity. Marina Hyde has worked at the Guardian since 2000, where her weekly columns have won her a reputation as one of the most admired journalists in the UK. The recipient of multiple awards, including the 2020 Edgar Wallace Award for writing of the highest quality, she has been named Political Commentator of the Year for the past two years by the Society of Editors, and Commentator of the Year at the Press Awards for the past three years running. She is the only woman in 45 years to receive the Sportswriter of the Year award from the Sports Journalists' Association. She lives in London.

What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times - Goodreads

This book provides a collection of those columns from 2016 to 2022 - covering a highly charged turbulent period in not just politics but across society in general. The material is strongly UK flavoured but includes discussion of political topics and themes that will be familiar and relevant more broadly (the US elections, Covid-19). Tom Lehrer declared that satire died the day Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. Hyde would disagree, as she argued in a piercing recent piece for Esquire. I suspect Craig Brown would second her on that. Sniggering at our betters might not get us anywhere. But it’s important to keep doing it, while we still can. See Faber authors in conversation and hear readings from their work at Faber Members events, literary festivals and at book shops across the UK. We've lived through a political maelstrom in the last few years. Brexit tore many families apart (we had to ban the top from my family WhatsApp) and what happened to the UK in the elections that followed was even more divisive. That my family are all still talking, still very close, is a minor miracle. Politics took centre stage for lots of people that never normally bother with it. We tuned in to live debates and votes. During the pandemic, we watched our 'leaders' every day on the tv putting it to us! And what I found bizarre about reading this collection which documents just how it all unrolled, is just how much I'd forgotten. It kept getting more and more bizarre. It's STILL getting more and more bizarre. Have we become normalised?

Summary

About the Author: Marina Hyde has worked at the Guardian since 2000, where her weekly columns have won her a reputation as one of the most admired journalists in the UK. The recipient of multiple awards, including the 2020 Edgar Wallace Award for writing of the highest quality, she has been named Political Commentator of the Year for the past two years by the Society of Editors, and Commentator of the Year at the Press Awards for the past three years running. She is the only woman in 45 years to receive the Sportswriter of the Year award from the Sports Journalists' Association. She lives in London. So much wrong with our politics, but the writer balances her critiques with wit and ridicule too. Ridicule is an excellent way to puncture the pompous. She’s quite good at throwing out phrases describing characters and events too. For example, the tendency of some of our privately schooled politicians to throw Latin phrases, or long anarchic words, into their mundane speeches led her to describe them as posing as the ‘classic stupid-person’s-idea-of-a-clever-person,..’. Marina Hyde writes for The Guardian newspaper and “What Just Happened” is a collection of her columns from 2016 - 2022, mostly a satirical commentary on British politics but also with sections on other topics including the royal family, sport and celebrities. Each year in politics as its own section (2016: Binfire of the Vanities, 2021: Stop me if you’ve heard this one before) with the other topics interspersed. I thought this was a good way to lay out the book as it broke up the narrative and also provided a bit of light relief. Although that’s not to say that this book was unrelenting doom and gloom - Marina Hyde’s writing is extremely witty and had me laughing out loud a lot of the time. Join Hyde as she revisits every moment of magic, from David Cameron to Theresa May to Boris Johnson to Rishi Sunak.

What Just Happened?! : Dispatches from Turbulent Times (The

of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times by Marina Hyde Read about the Faber story, find out about our unique partnerships, and learn more about our publishing heritage, awards and present-day activity.

Some of it is funny, some of it is painfully skewering, some of it is insightful, etc. If you're a fan of essay collections this might be a fun read. If you're someone who reads Hyde regularly or are looking for new material from here, this probably isn't the book for you and would be skippable.

What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Marina Hyde – What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent

After all, as a junior minister in Her Majesty’s government, Andrea enjoyed the sort of anonymity you’d hope for in one of the better witness protection programmes.” Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe. However, for me those superb columns do not translate well into book form. They are designed to be read in the moment, preferably with a cuppa, every word savoured. As a collected work I found it too much. Marina’s sharp insights and dry humour make her regular Guardian columns a must read highlight. I often find myself re-reading paragraphs in wonder - thinking how cleverly they have been constructed, so sharply cutting through to the point at hand. Faber Members have access to live and online events, special editions and book promotions, and articles and quizzes through our weekly e-newsletter.I greatly enjoyed reading the book, partly because I agree with the author’s sentiments, partly for the style of writing and also because it was a sobering reminder of how the country has ended up in its present state.

What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times (The What Just Happened?!: Dispatches from Turbulent Times (The

In particular I enjoyed Marina Sharp’s descriptions of politicians and other public figures. Theresa May is ‘The Florence Foster Jenkins of politics’, ‘governing like she’s got a landslide majority’, Boris Johnson ‘what would happen if you started making Margaret Rutherford out of papier-mâché but got bored halfway through’ and Jacob Rees-Mogg ‘a sort of monocled Sergio Ramos’. I am visualising the Spitting Image puppets as I write! On the one hand, there is merit here. Mariana Hyde is a good writer, who understands how to write engagingly about topical news. She does a very good job of capturing the readers attention, and the format of the book helps to keep up momentum. This book is a collection of Hyde's Sunday columns of the same name. It typically takes a piece of topical news and skewers it in a snarky, smug, centrist way. Therein lies another merit; this is a handy primer for anyone wanting a gentle way to remember the past five or so years. Unfortunately, the last five years being what they are, even Hyde's very light touch commentary can turn the reader's stomach.

Drawn from her spectacularly funny Guardian columns, What Just Happened?! is a welcome blast of humour and sanity in a world where reality has become stranger than fiction. February 2021: Rishi Sunak... Exchequer spokesmodel/gyoza-toting architect of Eat Out To Spread It About/the Conservative party's idea of a cool person. A full state banquet of crazy: Marina Hyde’s Guardian column has been a reliable place to turn to for comic relief when the grotesque incompetence, chaos, sleaze and lies of our betters threaten to overwhelm. Arguably, a collection of journalistic hot takes on an unusually turbulent period in our history - this volume starts in 2019 and ends in the defenestration of Johnson - runs the risk of seeming horribly dated but we need this as a reminder, and a laugh out loud one at that, of all that has happened.