Failures of State

Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain's Battle with Coronavirus
Author	George Arbuthnott; Jonathan Calvert;
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Subject	COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom
Genre	Investigative journalism, non-fiction, politics
Published	2021
Publisher	Mudlark/HarperCollins

Failures of State: The Inside Story of Britain's Battle with Coronavirus is a 2021 book by George Arbuthnott and Jonathan Calvert about the COVID-19 pandemic in the United Kingdom. The book is adapted from Calvert and Arbuthnott's reporting on the pandemic for The Sunday Times. It focuses on responses of the British government and National Health Service to the onset of the pandemic.^[1]^[2]

Content

Failures of State covers the

health care system. They also accuse the government of disinformation in their response to the authors' reporting during the pandemic.^[3]^[4]

Reception

Jonathon Freedland in The Guardian described the book as a "damning assessment" of the government's handling of the pandemic and "this is the book to throw at those who were meant to protect the British public and failed in their duty".^[2] Christina Patterson in The Times described it as "a gripping, devastating read" and "a piece of first-class investigative journalism", although noting at times "the tone falters".^[1] In The Scotsman, Elsa Maishman commended the author's journalism and research, concluding "It isn’t a book to be read peacefully before bedtime, but it is not one to be missed".^[5] Former health secretary Alan Johnson also reviewed Failures of State for The Observer.'s book of the week.^[3]