Things Are Against Us; proof copy

'The worst thing about men taking over the cooking of fancy food in restaurants is that every dish now arrives covered in ejaculant, all those drizzles and foam and schmeers...' 

THINGS ARE AGAINST US is the first collection of essays from Booker Prize-shortlisted author Lucy Ellmann. It is everything you might expect from such a fiery writer – which is to say, entirely unexpected. Provocative, smart, angry, wise, and very, very funny, the essays in Things Are Against Us cover everything –from feminism to environmental catastrophe; labour strikes to sex strikes; Little House On The Prairie to Donald Trump. Lucy calls for a moratorium on air travel ('You'd think a global pandemic would be an opportunity to reconsider the whole crazy business'). She rails against bras ('Men have managed to eroticise bras, but THEY DON'T HAVE TO WEAR THEM'). She gives Agatha Christie short shrift ('atrocious but ideal for people with colds'). And she pleads for sanity in a world that – well. A world that has spent four years in the company of Donald Trump. ('That big fat loser of a president, that nasty, sick, terrible, lowly, truly pathetic, reckless, sad, weak, lazy, incompetent, third-rate, clueless, not smart, dumb as a rock, all talk, wacko, fourthrate goofball and all-round low-life'). Things Are Against Us is electric. It's vital. These are essays bursting with energy, and reading them feels like sticking your hand in the mains socket. Lucy Ellmann is the writer we need to guide us through these crazy times.