Things Are Against Us is the first collection of essays from Booker Prize-shortlisted author Lucy Ellmann. It is everything you might expect from such a fiery writer – which is to say, entirely unexpected. Bold, angry, despairing, and very, very funny, the essays cover everything from matriarchy to environmental catastrophe to Little House on the Prairie. Ellmann calls for a moratorium on air travel – ‘You’d think a global pandemic would be an opportunity to reconsider the whole crazy business.’ She rails against bras – ‘Men have managed to eroticise bras, but THEY DON’T HAVE TO WEAR THEM.’ She gives Agatha Christie a drubbing – ‘atrocious, but ideal for people with colds’. And pleads for sanity in a world that . . . well, a world that has spent four years in the company of Trump – ‘That big, fat loser of a president, that nasty, sick, terrible, lowly, truly pathetic, reckless, sad, weak, lazy, incompetent, third-rate, clueless, not smart, dumb as a rock, all talk, wacko, goofball and all-around low-life . . .’

Things Are Against Us is electric. It’s vital. These are essays bursting with energy, and reading them feels like sticking your hand in the mains socket. Lucy Ellmann is the writer we need to guide us through these crazy times.