Cold War Steve Presents... The Festival of Brexit

(Hardback)

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Description

Cold War Steve has been acclaimed as the Brexit Bruegel and a modern-day Hogarth or Gillray. His Twitter feed, McFadden's Cold War, has become a cult phenomenon, with over 120,000 followers (and counting). This book contains the prime cuts of his elaborate, satirical photo collages from his Twitter feed, with further exclusive, unseen new work. Begun as a personal reprieve from an often-bleak political climate, Cold War Steve (Christopher Spencer in real life) started collaging images of longstanding Eastender Steve McFadden (aka Phil Mitchell) into Cold War-era scenarios, using a 3 smartphone app while commuting. As 'Brexit Britain' begins to take shape his output has taken an increasingly surreal, satirical turn - in what some are calling 'furious absurdism' - creating dystopian, absurdly funny Brexit-era landscapes populated with a rotating cast of political, cultural or otherwise newsworthy (or not) figures, and ever-present Fray Bentos pies. A pitch-perfect marriage of Internet meme culture and the political lampoon, Cold War Steve satirizes our increasingly incongruous-seeming popularpolitical culture with quintessentially British humour. In a time when the UK's exit from the EU looms large, Cold War Steve offers us a satirical escape from a world that seems to have slipped its moorings from reality.

Reviews

'Exemplifies an angry new movement the new furious absurdism' - The Economist
'Online therapy for those beaten down by political despair' - Guardian
'A modern Hogarth or Gillray Hes newsy and angry. Its what Brits do best. Dont engage with these peoples arguments because they dont have any. Just flay them alive with humour, sarcasm and art' - Jon Savage
'No one has caught the mood of Brexit Britain as acutely as Cold War Steve' - The Art Newspaper
'One of the funniest accounts on Twitter' - Kathy Burke
'Apocalyptic but side-splitting' - Financial Times

Author Bio

Cold War Steve is Christopher Spencer. He has been tweeting as @ColdWar_Steve since 2016.