Littlejohn's Britain [Hardcover]

'makes you laugh out loud and drives you incandescent with rage at
what the Blair years have done to Britain.'

'An articulate and searing criticism of the past ten years'

'Wise, funny, angry'

'Endless, effervescent and irreverent'

As with Jeremy Clarkson's bestseller, this is a themed collection of pieces that fires broadside at Blair's Britain and the absurdity of petty bureaucracy.

Richard Littlejohn describes his job as sitting at the back throwing bottles. His twice-weekly columns have become an essential fix for millions of readers of the Daily Mail and the Sun over the past two decades. In Littlejohn’s Britain he takes aim at the Blair years, lampooning New Labour with polemic, pastiche, parody, satire and savage social commentary. His cast of characters ­including Two Jags, the Wicked Witch, Captain Hook and the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban ­ have become part of the fabric of the nation. Littlejohn ridicules the country Britain has become over the past ten years – the barmy bureaucracy, the surveillance state, the petty interference in our lives, the suffocating regulations, policeman and judges who think they’re part of the social services, the insanities of the ’elf ’n’ safety industry, which have created such idiocies as forcing revellers celebrating Guy Fawkes Night to watch a bonfire on a big screen. Littlejohn has a bloodhound’s nose for cant, hypocrisy and lunacy and an unparalleled talent for pouring scorn on the arrogance of the powerful, while making his readers roar with laughter. It’s all here, in hilarious detail. Read The Secret Sex Diaries of David Blunkett, sing along to Two Jags: The Musical, take a ride on Blair Force One, play The Immigration Game and fight the Battle of Trafalgar under modern ’elf ’n’ safety guidelines. ‘Littlejohn has been … a vivid exponent of a great British columnar style that stretches back five centuries or more. He’s a distant, bastard cousin of Thomas Nash, Daniel Defoe and Alexander Pope. Cassandra and Bernard Levin might justly buy him a pint in the Chesire Cheese. Like or loathe him, he’s the real, talented deal.’ Observer

As with Jeremy Clarkson's bestseller, this is a themed collection of pieces that fires broadside at Blair's Britain and the absurdity of petty bureaucracy.

Richard Littlejohn describes his job as sitting at the back throwing bottles. His twice-weekly columns have become an essential fix for millions of readers of the Daily Mail and the Sun over the past two decades. In Littlejohn’s Britain he takes aim at the Blair years, lampooning New Labour with polemic, pastiche, parody, satire and savage social commentary. His cast of characters ­ including Two Jags, the Wicked Witch, Captain Hook and the Mad Mullah of the Traffic Taliban ­ have become part of the fabric of the nation. Littlejohn ridicules the country Britain has become over the past ten years – the barmy bureaucracy, the surveillance state, the petty interference in our lives, the suffocating regulations, policemen and judges who think they’re part of the social services, the insanities of the ’elf ’n’ safety industry, which have created such idiocies as forcing revellers celebrating Guy Fawkes Night to watch a bonfire on a big screen. Littlejohn has a bloodhound’s nose for cant, hypocrisy and lunacy and an unparalleled talent for pouring scorn on the arrogance of the powerful, while making his readers roar with laughter. He has a genius for getting up the noses of the great and the good. It’s all here, in hilarious detail. Read The Secret Sex Diaries of David Blunkett, sing along to Two Jags: The Musical, take a ride on Blair Force One, play The Immigration Game and fight the Battle of Trafalgar under modern ’elf ’n’ safety guidelines. ‘Littlejohn has been … a vivid exponent of a great British columnar style that stretches back five centuries or more. He’s a distant, bastard cousin of Thomas Nash, Daniel Defoe and Alexander Pope. Cassandra and Bernard Levin might justly buy him a pint in the Cheshire Cheese. Like or loathe him, he’s the real, talented deal.’ Observer

'Littlejohn slaughters more sacred cows than a foot and mouth epidemic. He makes you laugh out loud and drives you incandescent with rage at what the Blair years have done to Britain.' Jeremy Clarkson

Richard Littlejohn is an award-winning journalist and broadcaster, and author of two best-selling books. He has written for London’s Evening Standard and Punch and is still a contributor to the Spectator. His twice-weekly columns in the Daily Mail and the Sun earned him a place in the inaugural Newspaper Hall of Fame as one of the most influential journalists of the past 40 years. He has been Fleet Street’s Columnist of the Year and was named Irritant of the Year by the BBC’s What The Papers Say awards for his unrivalled ability to get up the noses of the Establishment. His extensive radio and television work has brought him both a Sony award and a Silver Rose of Montreux. Littlejohn’s satirical novel To Hell In A Handcart was the fastest-selling fiction paperback on its release in 2001. His highly acclaimed non-fiction book You Couldn’t Make It Up skewered John Major’s Conservative government – much the same as Littlejohn’s Britain does for the Blair years.