The few scribbled lines on the inside of Caitlin Moran’s newly collected works of columns, interviews and observation says it all: ‘Moranthology is proof that Caitlin can actually be “quite chatty”’. The bizarre hilarity of subjects: from squirrel’s testicals and caravans, to ‘David Cameron looking like ham’, feature alongside debate about ‘The Big Society’ and the welfare state, proving, as Moran says, that social and political problems are not just the province of learned professors and hot-shot wonks, but ‘a woman who once, as an experiment, put a wasp in a jar, and got it stoned’.

Moran revels in her own obscurity; loved by feminists everywhere, she has the kind of style and charm that dour oldies like Germaine Greer have always been incapable of; feminists that put their subject on the map as something to be avoided if you didn’t want an ear-full. And this is what makes this book a delight of a read. Moran is passionate no doubt, but she is also a powerful and intelligent writer who bypasses all the grief of traditional argument in favour of a bloody good laugh.

The advantage of Moranthology over Moran’s debut, How To Be A Woman is of course one thing; her subject is not now confined to just being a woman. She holds a magnifying glass up to even the most unflattering aspects of a fascinating life, from the council estate of Wolverhampton to the offices of The Observer when she was just fifteen, and into the heights of journalism beyond. This is the woman who calls Boris Johnson an ‘albino shag-hound’ and once visited a strip-club with Lady Gaga, and why on earth would you not want to read more of that?

 

Moranthology is available now from Ebury now.

words: Callie White