Stand-up comedian Steve N Allen (as seen on BBC2’s The Mash Report) has written a book recording the events of 2020 – everyone’s “favourite” year – as they happened.

Lasted Another Year Despite A Pandemic is Steve’s journal highlighting how the year affected him, including the death of a parent, the struggles of being kept away from someone with dementia and the impact of a lockdown on a career.

As with every year, 2020 had its highs and lows and then more lows on top of those lows – but throughout it all there were still reasons to laugh. As Steve says in the book, “all we could do was to keep our fingers crossed that the vaccines worked. Fingers crossed, but also washed for 20 seconds while singing Happy Birthday.”

Compiled from the newspaper columns he writes, Lasted Another Year Despite A Pandemic is a collection of topical comedy from Steve’s unique viewpoint, covering some moments you might remember and some you might rather forget.

Some passages from the book:

On panic buying:

‘Given that we have so recently been through a panic buying pandemic I expected better from us. The fact that we still have items from the first surge tells us we don’t need to do it…I saw a picture of a woman leaving a supermarket with bags of pasta and around 128 rolls. That looks like the picture of someone who doesn’t know they’re gluten intolerant.’

On the vaccine:

‘The drugs company Pfizer is famous for making Viagra but it was originally tested as a heart drug. The drug’s raunchier physical impact was an accidental side effect. What if this vaccine has a similar side effect? It would cure the pandemic but we’d still not be able to leave the house.’

On having a relative in a care home during the pandemic:

‘I spend a lot of time thinking about the things I miss from before the lockdown. Most of all I miss being able to visit my father. He’s in a care home and seeing all the news about the situation in the care sector terrifies me…I know that we can’t ignore the economy. A failing economy will cost lives, but we also need people to be alive to have an economy. Good luck running your small business if all your customers have expired.’