Dawn of the Dumb – Charlie Brooker

I was worried about whether Brooker’s trademark brand of high-octane vitriol would burn itself over a complete book of newspaper columns, but it sustains itself surprisingly well. The trick is underlaying the satirical misanthropy with an almost puritanical moral humanism, as befits someone who has worked with the similarly inclined Chris Morris.

The book’s chief pleasure is as a treasure chest of zingers, one or two of which appear in virtually every piece here. I could open the book randomly and pick something out, but the one I found myself quoting at passers-by was the description of a Big Brother contestant as “not so much a person, more a damning indictment of everything”

Phineas Redux – Anthony Trollope

A return to the main thread of the Palliser series after the detour provided by The Eustace Diamonds, this takes us back to the lobbies of Westminster and the drawing rooms of the West End (plus the inevitable hunting scene). There are actually some momentous events that take us all the way back to the Barchester books.

I was irritated that the unexpected turn towards melodrama a god 400 pages in was given away on the blurb (cheers, Penguin), but of course the pleasures of a good Trollope are many and various.