A parliament of fools, or a confederacy of dunces? Blethering celebrities and blundering politicians, royal babies and right royal cock-ups, milkshake madness and vegan sausage rolls - and, of course, the long and winding road to Brexit.

If ever the times were ripe for a return to the high days of Augustan satire, it’s now – and the Spectator’s literary editor Sam Leith provides it.

Our Times in Rhymes is a waspish, affectionate and very funny look at the state of our nation as it – let's be even-handed - teeters on the cliff-edge of a marvellous opportunity. Here is all the insanity and inanity of 2019, month by cherishable month, rendered in galloping comic verse and paired with satirical drawings by the brilliant cartoonist Edith Pritchett.

It makes the perfect Christmas stocking filler for anyone who needs a good laugh at the damnable times we live in.

Sam Leith…has turned to verse to unpick the ‘insanity and inanity’ of the year that was 2019 so you can relive the madness and the hilarity month by month -- Emelia Hamilton-Russell * Spears Wealth Management Survey *
A new Dunciad specifically for 2019. When times get weird what's the point of a million rancorous tweets? Far better to follow Sam Leith's lead and conduct our discourses solely in sonnets * Martin Rowson *
A gloriously satirical take on a darkly savage year. Leith transforms 2019 from bad to verse * Ben Schott *

Sam Leith (Author)
Sam Leith is the literary editor of The Spectator and a columnist for the FT, whose work has appeared in the Times, Guardian, TLS and New York Times among other outlets. He’s the author of several books, including You Talkin’ To Me? Rhetoric from Aristotle to Obama and Write To The Point: How To Be Clear, Correct and Persuasive on the Page.

Edith Pritchett (Illustrator)
Edith Pritchett is in-house cartoonist for online news channel The Tortoise. She won the Cape Graphic Short Story Prize in 2018. She brings a Posy Simmond-like wit to the preccocupations of the millennial era.