Throughout a presidential election he described as a “horror movie starring a leading lady I can’t stand and a leading man I detest”, the American satirist PJ O’Rourke wrote entertainingly – and sometimes brilliantly – for the likes of the Daily Beast, Esquire and the BBC. How the Hell Did This Happen?, his subsequent “compendium of scribble and yak”, reveals this self-confessed Republican to be as befuddled as many others that the American public could “flip out” to such an extent they would vote for a man whose “haircut makes Kim Jong Un laugh”.

While not all the targets will hit the mark for British readers – there’s just a little too much on the also-ran nominees – O’Rourke has a real eye for the vagaries of American politics and, on occasion, piercing insight. “The war is not between the Republicans and Democrats,” he concludes. “It’s between the frightened and what they fear. It is being fought by the people who perceive themselves as controlling nothing.” Quite.

• How the Hell Did This Happen by PJ O’Rourke is published by Grove Press (£12.99). To order a copy for £11.24 go to bookshop.theguardian.com or call 0330 333 6846. Free UK p&p over £10, online orders only. Phone orders min p&p of £1.99