Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain's Battle with Coronavirus

by Jonathan Calvert, George Arbuthnott

Overview

*THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER*

A GUARDIAN AND SUNDAY TIMES BOOK OF THE YEAR

‘An astonishing book’ James O’Brien

‘A gripping, devastating read’ Sunday Times

The inside story of the UK’s response to the pandemic from the Insight investigations unit at The Sunday Times

Failures of State recounts the extraordinary political decisions taken at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government during the global pandemic.

Fully updated and corroborated by hundreds of sources, this is the insider’s account of how the government sleepwalked into disaster and tried to cover up its role in the tragedy. Thrillingly told, it exposes one of the most scandalous failures of political leadership in British history.

‘A damning indictment’ Alan Johnson, Observer

‘A devastating piece of journalism’ Andrew Marr

‘This is a scandal’ Piers Morgan

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780008430559
Publisher:	HarperCollins Publishers
Publication date:	06/14/2022
Edition description:	Revised and updated edition
Pages:	512
Product dimensions:	5.08(w) x 7.80(h) x (d)

About the Author

Jonathan Calvert is the editor of The Sunday Times’ renowned Insight investigative team. His accolades include British Journalist of the Year and the Paul Foot Award as well as Scoop of the Year on four occasions.
George Arbuthnott joined The Sunday Times on the Marie Colvin Scholarship and is now deputy editor of the Insight team. He has won six British Journalism and UK Press Awards, including Investigation of the Year and Scoop of the Year, and has been shortlisted for an Amnesty International Award, the European Press Prize and the Orwell Prize.

Table of Contents

Prologue: You must stay at home 1

Part 1 Origins

24 April 2012 to 23 January 2020

1 The Best Clue to the Origins 15

2 Outbreak and Cover-Up 30

Part 2 Sleepwalk into Disaster

24 January 2020 to 23 March 2020

3 Wildfire 57

4 Sleepwalk 83

5 Holiday 110

6 Part-Time Prime Minister 139

7 The Action Plan 158

8 Herd Immunity 174

9 Dither 204

Part 3 The Reckoning

24 March 2020 to 26 April 2020

10 Disaster 237

11 Left to Die at Home 279

Part 4 The Same Mistake Twice

27 April 2020 to 2 December 2020

12 Worst of All Worlds 313

13 A Reckless Summer 349

14 The Circuit Breaker 375

Part 5 Plague Island

3 December 2020 to 1 January 2022

15 The Christmas Nightmare 409

16 The Retrospectoscope 434

References 475

Acknowledgements 483

Index 489

Editorial Reviews

‘An astonishing book that you absolutely have to buy … the nearest we’ll get to an inquiry.’ James O’Brien

‘Failures of State is a Christmas-at-Argos sized catalogue of the government’s errors, page after page filled with its mistakes, misjudgments and even its possibly actionable crimes.’ Jonathan Freedland, Guardian

‘This book is superb. Painful but necessary reading.’ Rachel Clarke

‘A masterpiece. This is one of the most important books of our time.’ Owen Jones

‘A brilliantly presented indictment of the UK’s fumbling attempt to meet the Covid challenge.’ Kazuo Ishiguro, Guardian

‘Failures of State is a gripping, devastating read. It’s a piece of first-class investigative journalism… this is a work of history. It’s witness. It’s also a kind of catharsis.’ Christina Patterson, Sunday Times

‘Incredibly reported and wildly damning … It is impossible to read Failures of State, the frequently jaw-dropping book by Sunday Times journalists Jonathan Calvert and George Arbuthnott, and not conclude that the British people deserved far, far better from the government’ Marina Hyde, Guardian

‘A frightening and detailed account of the failures of the last 12 months. Some of the revelations are sickening and shocking.’ Armando Iannucci, satirist and writer

‘A damning indictment’ Alan Johnson, Observer

‘Superb journalism … a truly remarkable book.’ Professor Devi Sridhar, Chair of Global Public Health

‘Buy it and read it so you’re never tempted to forget’ John Crace, Guardian journalist

‘A devastating new account of Year Covid exposes the Prime Minister’s utter failure to meet the nation’s greatest health crisis for a century.’ Paul Routledge, Daily Mirror

‘I cannot recommend this book enough’ David Schneider, comedian and writer

From the Publisher

Narrator Ben Onwukwe is appropriately respectful to the seriousness of this audiobook. The U.S. is not alone. The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could have been less devastating; history is already showing how world leaders failed the public. This exhaustively detailed work, written by investigative journalists at Britain’s SUNDAY TIMES, looks at COVID in the United Kingdom by following Prime Minister Boris Johnson through a series of truly shocking administrative missteps. Skillfully, Onwukwe captures the vocal styles of key public figures. His performance of Johnson is almost darkly humorous as the politician dithers between encouraging lockdowns one moment and supporting a return to normal behavior the next. To understand what happened in 2020, this audiobook is required listening. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JULY 2021 - AudioFile

Narrator Ben Onwukwe is appropriately respectful to the seriousness of this audiobook. The U.S. is not alone. The global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic could have been less devastating; history is already showing how world leaders failed the public. This exhaustively detailed work, written by investigative journalists at Britain’s SUNDAY TIMES, looks at COVID in the United Kingdom by following Prime Minister Boris Johnson through a series of truly shocking administrative missteps. Skillfully, Onwukwe captures the vocal styles of key public figures. His performance of Johnson is almost darkly humorous as the politician dithers between encouraging lockdowns one moment and supporting a return to normal behavior the next. To understand what happened in 2020, this audiobook is required listening. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2021, Portland, Maine

JULY 2021 - AudioFile