Being Alert! begins in January 2020 as the British prime minister, Winston Spragg, first learns about a new illness that seems to be centred in a city in China that nobody has heard of.

Following in a long tradition of British satire, the book populates Downing Street and Whitehall with an inept prime minister presiding over a dysfunctional government as it deals with an existential threat that rapidly becomes a national crisis.

Like satires before it, the book uses humour to paint an uncomfortable picture of a government seemingly as concerned about justifying itself as working to protect the country.

My Thoughts:

I have read Charlie’s previous novel The Things We Learn When We Are Dead and enjoyed it, this one is set in London and is to do with the current situation that is all around the world. This story shows how the people in charge go about how to deal with this threat. I found it an interesting and kind of going behind the scenes look into how the government deal with a crisis as big as it is. It is a big debate as to what the government are doing and aren’t doing and it begs the question have they and are they doing enough? . It really made me think about the world we live in, how the government are dealing with the situation at the moment and what they need to do to make it better and how we can help each other.

I received an ARC copy of this book for an honest review.

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