John Crace and Viv Groskop

John Crace is the Guardian's parliamentary sketch writer and author of the ‘Digested Read’ columns. He is the author of I Never Promised you a Rose Garden: A short guide to modern politics, the coalition and the general election and also Baby Alarm: A Neurotic’s Guide to Fatherhood, Vertigo: One Football Fan's Fear of Success, Harry's Games: Inside the Mind of Harry Redknapp, Brideshead Abbreviated: The Digested Read of the Twentieth Century and The Digested Twenty-first Century. In A Farewell to Calm: The New Normal Survival Guide, Crace introduces an infectiously funny selection of his finest pieces from 2020–21, taking in everything from a summer of unfathomable U-turns to Christmas Covid confusion, and from lockdown-lifting to Brexit blithering.

Viv Groskop is a writer, critic, broadcaster and stand-up comedian. She has presented Front Row and Saturday Review on BBC Radio 4, is a regular on BBC1’s This Week and has hosted book tours for Graham Norton, Jo Brand and Jennifer Saunders. Groskop’s books include The Anna Karenina Fix: Life Lessons from Russian Literature, and How to Own the Room: Women and the Art of Brilliant Speaking. She is currently writing a self-help memoir titled Au Revoir, Tristesse: Lessons in Happiness from French Literature due out in 2020.