Review: Caitlin Moran's 'Moranifesto' sure to get readers' votes
'As someone who comes from a council estate, in a town that rioted in the 1980s (Wolverhampton, the McDonald's was left intact. Even as we rioted, we protected the chips), but now mingles with the elite,' says Caitlin Moran, 'I know why those feelings exist.'
Moran, who grew up in Wolverhampton, became a columnist for The Times and is now a celebrity in her own right (35 per cent celebrity in fact, she'll have you know) reveals her musings on everything from demon printers, to the housing crisis, to her reaction to Margaret Thatcher's death.
Her new book, an anthology of her political writing, aptly titled Moranifesto tells us pretty much what we already knew about Moran – she is one of us.
See also: Gallery and review - Caitlin Moran, Birmingham Town Hall
Providing 'us' is someone who really hates getting her legs out of her tights in summer, always considers cancelling nights out at around 4pm on the day, weirdly enjoys hangovers and grew up on benefits.
The girl who attended Springdale Junior School claims she knows why we feel the way we feel.
In a different vein to her previous works, How to Build a Girl, How to Be a Woman and Moranthology, this book tackles all the things we knew affected us but we weren't quite sure how, or if anyone else felt the same way.
Moran reassures us, she knows what it's like to be poor, how Benefits Street 'currently stands for 20.3 million untold stories'. She remembers West Park, and people standing in line at the jobcentre, the riots of the 1980s. But she also advises us of what not to do when interviewing famous people (having thrown clove oil in Robbie Williams' eye), reveals the similarities between Bowie and Shakespeare and tells us what happens when's she's left alone (crying to Jeff Buckley and carrying her cats around the house, mainly).
What Moran does is bring politics into the realms of the everyday. By interspersing the hilarious everyday titbits from her life with the political, she makes the reader really engage with the things that the politicians of our generation will be remembered for – austerity, the bedroom tax, the refugee crisis and the gender-pay gap. She, basically, keeps it real. That's why, love her or hate her, she's just apologetically who she is – ballsy, off-the-cuff, brilliant.