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Our Times in Rhymes
Our Times in Rhymes
Nov 16, 2025 9:12 AM

Author:Sam Leith,Edith Pritchett

Our Times in Rhymes

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.

Reviews

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

Searle creates a powerful sense of place. You can sniff the air and touch the trees.

—— Michael Palin

Powell’s novel sequence is at once a rich chronicle of 20th-century English social life and an intricately wrought work of art. It is also extremely funny, in its sly fashion.

—— John Banville

Reading “A Dance to the Music of Time” was such a joyous experience, I remember wishing there'd been more than twelve volumes.

—— Roddy Doyle

I re-read the "Dance" every five years or so and always find something new – the world has changed but the characters are evergreen. Everybody has a Widmerpool in their life.

—— Daisy Goodwin

He has wit, style, and panache, in a world where those qualities are in permanently short supply

—— The New York Review of Books

A masterful stylist and a wise, often hilarious observer of human nature and his times, Anthony Powell is an under-appreciated literary gem. The pleasures and dramas of the "Dance" continue to illuminate daily life.

—— Claire Messud

[A] comic masterpiece

—— Irish Times

Comic, satisfying, thought-provoking, addictive

—— The Telegraph

It's his supreme skill in mastering a lengthily interwoven chronicle, the evolution of such a range and variety of pin-point characters, the wit and the cultural ambition that give the novel a unique place in English literature.

—— Melvyn Bragg

Jade does what uncounted sexual assault survivors have dreamed of doing - she takes matters into her own hands. What ensues is part [...] revenge fantasy, part diabolically well-planned manipulation, and it's all done in lyrical prose that feels dreamy and so much like Shakespeare. A gorgeous, scorchingly emotional novel

—— Wendy Heard, author of Hunting Annabelle and The Kill Club and cohost of Unlikeable Female Characters podcast

This revenge fantasy told from the point of view of a rape survivor will shock and awe.

—— School Library Journal

THIS BOOK WILL BE YOUR NEXT OBSESSION. Welcome to the Hazel Wood, where bad luck is a living thing, princesses are doomed, and every page contains a wondrously terrible adventure - it's not safe inside these pages, but once you enter, you may never want to leave.

—— Stephanie Garber, Bestselling Author of Caraval

Katz's debut is one that will have readers gripped from the very first words until the last - and a book that will stay with you for a long while afterwards.

—— Her.ie

[A] smart debut, both compelling and disturbing, delivered with the kind of confidence that makes me keen to see what Katz will come up with next.

—— A Life in Books Blog

[G]ripping debut … Here’s a page-turner you’ll devour before the week is out

—— Stylist Daily Newsletter

A razor sharp psychological deconstruction of the motivations, regrets and secrets behind a picture-perfect façade.

—— The Week

White-knuckle ride

—— RTE Guide

I really wanted to just press the book into anyone’s hands and say ‘please read this’! [...] An important read

—— Bookish Chat

Readers hungry for an in-depth study of a man searching for control, power and ownership will find satisfaction in A Good Man. But caveat emptor - this story inevitably hurtles at the end towards a chilling finale

—— Crime Review

This stellar debut from Ani Katz had us gripped from the beginning.

—— That’s Life!
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