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”