The Bedside Guardian 2016

The Bedside Guardian

by Claire Armitstead (Editor)

Has there been such a tumultuous year as 2016 in living memory? The EU referendum in June divided the nation and sent shockwaves through the world. The corridors of Westminster began to resemble a made-for-TV drama: friendships were betrayed, promises broken, and the political landscape was changed for ever.

But even before this we were already on course for a remarkable year. A series of unexpected celebrity deaths; the onward march of Donald Trump; an MP murdered on the streets of West Yorkshire; Wales’s shock appearance in a European Cup semi-final – it was a year of surprises, of ‘have you heard…?’ moments.

As ever, the Guardian’s team of award-winning journalists were on hand to make sense of it all, responding with a clear eye and a cool head when everyone else was losing theirs. The paper continued its tradition of trailblazing investigation, from the groundbreaking ‘The Web We Want’ campaign to the extraordinary revelations contained within the Panama Papers. There was even space for humour – a necessity in a year that at times seemed short of laughs.

Here, in the annual round-up of the paper’s best writing of 2016 – from Julian Barnes on Leicester winning the Premier League, Philip Pullman on Brexit, and not forgetting Nancy Banks-Smith on the Archers’ Rob and Helen – we take a look back at twelve months that will live long in the memory.

Genres: Nonfiction

320 pages, Hardcover

Published November 3, 2016

About the author

Claire Armitstead was born in south London and spent her early years in northern Nigeria. She worked as a trainee reporter in South Wales, covering the Welsh valleys during the miners’ strike, before joining the Hampstead & Highgate Express as a theatre critic and sub-editor. She then moved to the Financial Times, and subsequently to the Guardian, where she has worked as arts editor, literary editor, head of books and most recently, Associate Editor (Culture). She presents the weekly Guardian Books podcast and is a regular speaker at festivals around the world. She has been a trustee of English PEN since 2013.

Reviews

[Suzanne Wren · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my seventh year of reading the Bedside Guardian, it's become a little end of year ritual for me, a good reminder of the past year events and a chance to read some more in-depth journalism from some of the finest in the business. Particularly enjoyed the Brewdog feature.

[Jeff Howells · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's fitting that as we enter the fag end of 2016 that I finish off by reading this year's Bedside Guardian. It's obviously not an anthology of the calendar year - it starts in the autumn of 2015 and ends in the autumn of 2016 and is bookended by articles on the two Corbyn Labour leadership elections. It has a great range of articles - mostly about the obvious (Bowie, Brexit, Trump) and the writing is generally excellent (especially those by Katharine Viner the editor in chief of the daily newspaper). I'm going to knock a star off purely because they've included an awful article by Paul Mason (who I can't stand at the best of times). Although I've been a reader of the newspaper since my late teens this is the first Bedside Guardian I've read (and only because I was sent a free copy), but I think it won't be my last.

[Thor · Rating 4 out of 5]

An overall gooooood retrospective of autumn 2015 through summer 2016. Greatly varied picks, ranging from the tiresome holiday planner to other fun tidbits, like Boris Johnson's face "ashen with victory".

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Burkinis, Bras, Bake Off, Brew Dog, Boaty McBoat Face, Strictly Come Dancing, David Bowie, Mohammid Ali, Narcism, The Web We Want, How Technology Disrupted the Truth, Hillsborough, Brexit, Obama - Grade A journalism.