Moranthology by Caitlin Moran

The ingeniously titled ‘Moranthology’ is a collection of Caitlin Moran’s columns, reviews and interviews originally published in The Times. Following the success of her guide to modern feminism, ‘How To Be a Woman‘, this collection covers a broader range of topics including Boris Johnson, cannabis, tax, Doctor Who, holidays in Aberystwyth, burqas, World of Warcraft, party bags and pandas to name a few.

In a very funny introduction, Moran describes her early beginnings as a journalist. She won the Observer’s Young Reporter of the Year competition at the age of fifteen and has written for The Times since she was eighteen. After briefly working as a music critic, she came to the conclusion that her style of journalism would follow something along the lines of: “I am just going to be polite and silly, and point at cool things”. She has stuck to this very consistently throughout her career.

Whether it is a serious debate about benefit reform or the most trivial aspect of pop culture, Moran can write both intelligently and humorously about virtually any subject you can think of. As well as columns about general topics, interviews with Eddie Izzard, Lady Gaga, Keith Richards and David Tennant are also included as well as obituaries of Elizabeth Taylor and Amy Winehouse. My favourite pieces are probably the conversations with her husband, the music critic Pete Paphides, at the beginning of each of the four parts.  Most of the articles here seem to be from around 2007 – 2012 but exact dates are not included. The articles have been organised logically in terms of subject matter and Moran introduces each piece with some context.

‘Moranthology’ is a must for fans of Moran’s unique style of writing and I’m hoping this will be the first of many collections of her work. In the meantime, Moran also has a new semi-autobiographical novel coming out this summer called ‘How to Build a Girl’ which I am looking forward to reading.