Has the World Gone Completely Mad...?: Unpublished Letters to the Daily Telegraph

Unpublished Letters to The Daily Telegraph #7

by Iain Hollingshead

Readers of the Telegraph Letters Page will be fondly aware of the eclectic combination of learned wisdom, wistful nostalgia and robust good sense that characterise its correspondence. But what of the 95 per cent of the paper's huge postbag that never sees the light of day? Some of the best letters inevitably arrive too late for the 24/7 news cycle, or don't quite fit with the rest of the day's selection. Others are just a little too whimsical, or indeed too risque, to publish in a serious newspaper. And more than a few are completely and utterly (and wonderfully) mad.

Thankfully Iain Hollingshead is on-hand to give the authors of the best unpublished letters the stage they so richly deserve. Baffled, furious, defiant, mischievous, they inveigh and speculate on every subject under the sun, from the rubbish on television these days to the venality of our MPs.

The sixth book in the bestselling Unpublished Letters series, with an agenda as enticing as ever, Has the World Gone Completely Mad...? will prove, once again, that the Telegraph's readers have an astute sense of what really matters.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Hardcover

First published September 24, 2015

About the author

Iain writes feature articles for a range of publications, The Daily Telegraph in particular. Until recently, he also wrote a regular column called Loose Ends in Saturday's Guardian. He has taken part in a number of radio shows, including BBC Radio 4's Today programme and You and Yours.

His father is a GP and his mother is a surgeon. He has one elder brother. He went to Eton from 1993-98. Iain graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 with a first class degree in History. He worked for a year in Westminster - at Vote 2004 and the private office of Michael Howard - before pursuing a full-time career as a journalist. Vote 2004 was described in the Sunday Telegraph as the "most successful political campaign of all time". Iain was runner-up in the Guardian Student Media Awards as Columnist of the Year. While at university he also founded and edited The Cambridge Slapper - a popular satirical magazine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iain_Ho...

Reviews

[Michael]

Good to dip into, smile, sigh, despair. In general, these letters are unpublished for a reason. I've read two of these compilations; probably won't be tempted to read more ....

[Duncan Hendry]

I end up seemingly reading these unpublished Telegraph letters collections every year now, even though I don't have anything else to do with the paper. There's normally a good bit of wit, an easy read and they put on a smile on your face.

This was exactly what I expected, maybe not the best, but considering they run so concurrent to topical issues, it's hard to read them late, so to reread and compare to the others is a bit pointless.

I enjoyed the poem about the passing of Richie Benaud very much so.

[Sarah]

This is a wonderful book full of eccentric and quirky viewpoints. This is intelligent humour at its best, don’t be put off by thinking it’ll all be politics and big issues, it also covers why Gwyneth Paltrow might be steaming her pudenda and mentions are made of Fifty Shades Of Grey. It acts as a great reminder of the big news stories of the past year. I’ve read all of these books and am already looking forward to the next.

[Mike]

A light-hearted look into the mind of a Telegraph reader. A good book to pass the time, nothing more. 6/10