Failures of State recounts the extraordinary political decisions taken at the heart of Boris Johnson’s government during the global pandemic. Meticulously researched and corroborated by hundreds of inside sources, politicians, emergency planners, scientists, doctors, paramedics and bereaved families, along with leaked data and documents, this is the insider’s account of how the government sleepwalked into disaster and tried to cover up its role in the tragedy—and it exposes one of the most scandalous failures of political leadership in British history. With access to key figures at the top of government during the most tumultuous year of modern British history, Failures of State is an exhaustive and thrillingly told story—and one of the most essential pieces of investigative reporting for a generation.