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

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I am a huge fan of Marina Hyde's column in the Guardian. Her particular form of acerbic wit, the way she has of using such a wide frame of cultural references to illustrate her points, really appeal to me - as, I will admit up front, does her left-wing inclinations. She decided not to edit the articles in this collection, which spans the years from Brexit to the appointment of the first of a series of short-lived Tory PMs, taking in Trumpian politics, and dipping into Hollywood, moguls and the media by way of light relief.

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Not living in the UK, I am not ofay with a level of detail that I would likely need to appreciate, to have lived through, to get the most from this selected collection of Guardian thrice weekly articles written by the author. So whilst I can appreciate some superlative comedic writing, I know that I am in all likelihood missing a key element in truly appreciating the work to its fullest. If like me you were horrified by the outcome of the 2016 referendum and feel that the country has been on a downward spiral since then, this is the book for you! If however despite the events of the past few years you have continued to put your faith in the Tories then I don’t think it would appeal! I also think it requires a certain amount of knowledge and understanding of British politics, as the columns are written as reaction to events rather than describing them. I've read Marina Hyde and her columns in The Guardian for its ridiculous skewering of what happens to be going on at the moment:an election, the runup to the Brexit referendum and its aftermath, British political shenanigans, you name it. I don't read all of her columns religiously but do enjoy the commentary, even if I do not always fully understand them as someone who is not British. This is a collection of those columns. 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.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. If you're coming to Coles by car, why not take advantage of the 2 hours free parking at Sainsbury's Pioneer Square - just follow the signs for Pioneer Square as you drive into Bicester and park in the multi-storey car park above the supermarket. Come down the travelators, exit Sainsbury's, turn right and follow the pedestrianised walkway to Crown Walk and turn right - and Coles will be right in front of you. You don't need to shop in Sainsbury's to get the free parking! Where to Find Us An infinite number of gag-writers, working all day in a gag factory, couldn't come up with any of the perfectly-formed one-liners that populate Marina Hyde's hilarious writing . . . But behind the wit lurks real anger, argument, exasperation and intelligence. Her writing is more than a gentle poke in the it's a well-wrought and deftly aimed smash in the teeth.'

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

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. 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. June 2016: As for Boris, never forget that the only untruth the prime ministerial favourite-in-waiting corrected in the entire campaign was the Sunday Times misapprehension that he dyed his hair. June 2016: Nigel Farage is about to achieve everything he wants. That alone should make leavers think again. No one was ever argued out of an opinion by a newspaper columnist - "opinion journalists" exist to provide a warm glow (and an incentive to renew subscriptions) in readers who share their opinions. That said, I happen to agree with Hyde on a lot of things, and even better, she's the pithiest, funniest columnist I know of currently operating in the UK or the US.

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? 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. If there could possibly be said to be a silver lining to the shit-shroud we’ve all had to wear over the past six years (Hyde’s book begins in 2016), it is the fact that desperate times make for extremely funny journalism. And as the many national crises deepen, and the situation worsens, and the Great British Car Crash becomes a six-lane pile-up, so Hyde’s imagination runs riot, her writing becomes wilder and more fantastic. Righteously angry, too. Much as it will be a useful piece of social and political history, it’s the bantz that you come to Ms H for and she remains reliably on point, whether coining the word wallygarchy to describe Johnson’s gift of a knighthood to the spectacularly useless and unpleasant Gavin Williamson, or the description of Andrea Leadsom’s terrifying smile - “it’ll come after you, that smile”. Marina somehow frequently nails what it is we find so unlikeable/despicable/sinister about certain public figures.

What Just Happened?!: Dispatches From Turbulent Times What Just Happened?!: Dispatches From Turbulent Times

We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. An infinite number of gag-writers, working all day in a gag factory, couldn’t come up with any of the perfectly-formed one-liners that populate Marina Hyde’s hilarious writing…but behind the wit lurks real anger, argument, exasperation and intelligence. Her writing is more than a gentle poke in the ribs: it’s a well-wrought and deftly aimed smash in the teeth’ – Armando IannucciSo 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,..’. 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. 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. Though Geldof was annoying she was turning a corner and was on her way to becoming an interesting woman, but we will never know now what she might have become, will we? 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.