David Mitchell's best-selling Thinking About It Only Makes It Worse, published back in 2014, must really have made people think - because everything's got worse. We've gone from UKIP surge to Brexit shambles, from digging up Richard III to breaking up fatbergs, from Big Society to food banks, from twerking to stabbing. It's probably socially irresponsible even to try to cheer up.

But if you're up for it all the same, why not dive into this brilliantly observed and witty analysis of the farce of recent years? As facts are downgraded to opinions, as customers are preyed upon by algorithm-wielding websites, voters by targeted lies, cinema-goers by superheroes and children by measles, David Mitchell negotiates a path between the commercialisation of Christmas and the true spirit of Halloween. Incisive, hilarious and disappointingly truthful, no other writer is better placed to take on the dumbfounding times we live in.

First published: Tuesday 5th November 2019

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