The scope of world affairs covered is impressive. Ellis’s prose is intelligent and often devastatingly acerbic. Witness his critiques of Rupert Murdoch and Elizabeth Taylor (some readers may find this section tasteless: Ellis’s criticisms of the actress appear immediately after he mentions her death in March 2011). Ellis constantly refers to himself in the third person, which is puzzling and unnecessary.

The Year It All Fell Down does not contain an introduction or conclusion. These would have provided spaces for Ellis to explain why he chose to examine 2011 over any other year. For example, 2008 also contained a number of politically significant and highly publicised events (the ‘Sorry Speech’ in Australia and Barack Obama’s election as US president are two such examples). There are, to my knowledge, no books that focus specifically on 2008. Indeed, as a whole, The Year It All Fell Down reads like a hurriedly compiled series of memorable moments. Not even Ellis’s journalistic flair can disguise this book’s lack of sophistication.