Love in the Time of Covid

A Memoir in 50 Essays

De: Ian Patrick

Narrado por: Michael Richard

Love in the Time of Covid is a memoir in fifty short essays written during the Covid era between 2020 and 2024. The essays describe the author's responses to media reports, debates, and public commentaries on a range of current affairs during the course of the pandemic. His primary focus is on the poisoning of social discourse during this period, when there was 'no love lost' in conflicts between adversarial parties.

©2025 Ian Patrick (P)2025 Ian Patrick

Very good writing and narration

I read my first Ian Patrick book six or seven years ago and wasn't too much into it because of the foreign names, although I thought lots of it was very good. But then I read more, and became transfixed. I thought my first review was a bit harsh but now I think he's a wonderful writer. So this book is very different. It's not a crime thriller but a memoir of the Covid years. It's not about Covid so much as about how we were all misled by the media. I think it is a very, very intelligent analysis of all that went wrong during the 2020-2024 period. I heartily recommend it to readers and listeners (I had read it before I listened to the audio (I got a complimentary voucher for the audio after buying the kindle version), and that was even better than reading it, because the voice and speech of the narrator are very good. All in all, it is brilliant, although I wish the book covered more international politics, but I can't complain because it is very comprehensive, and the essays are all short and very succinct.

The audiobook is even better than the book itself

Albany, NY.

I've had this book on my Goodreads shelf for a few months and have only just got to it recently. I read the writer's "Ryder Quartet" crime thriller six or seven years ago and loved it, so I wasn't expecting this, which is not a crime thriller. It really is a solid analysis of the failures of the media during the Covid -19 period. Some people will say it's a book about Trump but it's not - the author in fact says on half a dozen occasions that although it might sound like a Trump-supporting book, it's not - he only refers to some very outrageous lies told about Trump as a way of showing how the media can't be trusted to be objective, because they are so deranged by Trump. As I wrote this I looked at a totally scandalous BBC Panorama manipulation of Trump's words in order to spin a defective narrative about the man. They take his speech on January 6th 2021 and cut together two sentences nearly an hour apart, to make it seem as if he's exhorting his followers to violence. It is a total fabrication and I hope he sues them, just as he successfully sued ABC and CBS for similar behaviour. Anyway, I recently received an audio token after having bought this book a few months ago, and it has been a real pleasure to listen to the whole thing again after having already read it once. A really good book.

I didn't expect this

I didn't expect to get a memoir when I signed up for a crime-thriller newsletter. I liked the writer's police dramas of a few years back so I approached this with trepidation. But I have to admit I was caught, and read the whole book quite quickly. This is mainly because I share the writer's opinions about the press. I also purchased the digital version with all its links to videos and interviews. That was really fascinating. Then, out of the blue, I received a token to get the audio version, so this adds to the review I had already put on Goodreads. The narration was very clear and comfortable to listen to. All together, then, this is a very good book.

Truly gripping, though not a police thriller

I got the e-book first and then got a complimentary code for the audio-book, which I've been listening to today: ALL day. It is truly gripping (but it's not a police thriller, for those who weren't aware). It seems to be a departure from the writer's normal focus.

But in some ways it IS a thriller. I couldn't wait to turn to the next chapter (they're all very short). He covers a lot of ground, from South Africa to the USA, from the UK to Australia. All of his focus is on what the press and especially the TV broadcasters and radio stations are saying about current affairs, and he shows how they manipulate facts and statistics and quotes and interviews to show the world as they want to see it instead of how it really is: from the deliberate editing of tv footage, by a major national broadcaster, to EXCLUDE a dagger in the hand of a young black (yes, that is an important detail) woman so that it looks like she is an innocent victim of a fatal shooting by a white (yes, that's an important detail) male cop. The woman in question was about to plunge a dagger into the chest of another person. So the editing changed the story from 'a heroic white cop shooting a would-be assassin' to a different story: 'once again a white cop shoots an innocent black victim'. What a shock it was to see the video of the truth (provided by the writer through a link in the e-book to the police body-cam footage).

There are many examples like this - from changing sentences, inserting words, twisting actual quotations, and many more - showing how the media have been guilty of presenting fake news. I found it all very educative, and I for one am going to be very wary from now on.

How the press takes sides

I read a book by this author four years ago so when I got a newsletter about this latest book I thought I'd try it, then I soon received an offer to get the audio version free because I had bought the digital one. I was strictly advised that if I reviewed, then I should do so completely freely. In other words, I suppose, they were telling me that I was not being bribed to write a positive review. They needn't have bothered - I never review to anyone's specifications.

I am really enjoying this writing (about half-way through), with nobody prompting me in any direction. I happen to agree with just about everything I'm reading in the book so far. And the narration is crisp and clear, so I'm feeling good about it as I listen along with reading.

UPDATE: FINAL THOUGHTS

Finished. The book is very good. Chapter 45, especially, is very enlightening; showing in detail, with lots of examples, how the press take sides and do everything they can to spin their chosen side of things. I think everyone should read this book: and cross-referencing to the videos and lectures and interviews by clicking on the digital text is very helpful.

The only thing, like other readers have said, is that I wish there was a chapter on Gaza and one on Ukraine, which both seem to me to be important omissions.

Very good: wish it were even longer

An excellent critique of the media during a strange period. I agree with the author, and his examples are brilliant but still only the tip of the iceberg. I remember some even more outlandish claims of the main media outlets, claims that turned out to be false, that the author doesn't touch on, but he certainly is, nevertheless, comprehensive. I received a link to the audiobook for free after having bought the ebook, so that was good. Excellent voice and diction form the narrator.

The book is sharp, incisive, and humorous at times (the essay "A bag of poo") is hilarious. I only wish he hadn't stopped with the election of Trump. I would have liked to see what he thought about the period from January 2025, when Trump took over. Maybe that will come in another book.

Very good, but I wish it also covered 2025

Because I bought a crime thriller some six or seven years ago I received a newsletter offering a complimentary code to get the audio version of this (non-crime thriller) book by the same author, and inviting me to review it if I wanted to, with no strings attached. Well, twenty minutes into it I liked it so much that I decided to buy the digital edition also, so that I could read and listen at the same time, and also check the videos that the author refers to. It's all really good, and the narrator's voice is very good, and the only reason I don't review it at five stars is that I think it stopped too soon. I would like to hear what the author says about Trump as president since he became president in 2025 (I think Trump is doing amazing things). Anyway, I agree with just about every thing the author says about the media. I don't watch those main media at all now, and get all my news from the internet, where there are different opinions and intelligent people who back up what they have to say instead of spouting their opinions in the face of facts that contradict what they say.

Great research

Nearly a decade ago I read a crime thriller by Ian Patrick. Then I read a few more over the years, and even re-read a couple of them. Then he went quiet and when this book came out I prepared myself for some more mayhem and police action. Mistake. This book is not about any of that. It's about crime in another way. It's about the crime of the main broadcasters and newspapers and magazines that chose to abandon proper journalism for sensational sound-bites, and who sacrificed truth for their ideological and political stance. The writer certainly brings all his research and forensic talents to the task and exposes all the falsehoods, giving evidence in each case he describes. This was really good to read, and even thrilling in a kind of detective-thriller way. I found it a little repetitive in parts, but I also accept what he says in his conclusion, that because he originally wrote this like a Dickensian weekly report, he couldn't rely on this readers having read earlier chapters so he had to repeat a few things to bring them up to speed. Apart from that, I found it very good. The narrator is excellent, too.
I received a complimentary copy of the audio book because I had bought the digital version, so it was good to listen along while I was reading.

This should be required reading and listening

I read the writer's crime books nearly ten years ago and was interested to see this new non-crime book. I bought the ebook and then received a code to get the audio, so read and listened at the same time. I enjoyed it a great deal. The analyses are very short and insightful, and I happen to agree with virtually all of them. The book should be required reading for anyone interested in global issues affecting civil discourse. The recent killing of Charlie Kirk demands that people on both sides return to respect for debate and civil argument. This book comes at the perfect time. I urge everyone to read it.

Brilliant

This has been a real pleasure to listen to. Honest, articulate, intriguing, and brilliantly researched. I listened to one of this author's books years ago and liked it very much but this was different experience (I'm not usually into memoirs). The examples of how the media mis-represented what was really happening are shocking. The author shows lots of examples and cross-references, so that it's never just his opinion but actually verifiable incidents of mis-representations that he provides. But there's also a lot of humour (I love the way he says his friend only listened to the news that was "kneaded" instead of what he had said he "needed"). The story of the doggie-poo in a bag was hilarious. The final paragraph of the whole book is really good.