Back in 2008, writer Steve Glover was asked to supply entries to a blog titled: "Strictly Come Blogging".

The idea being to piggy-back off the popularity of UK TV's highly popular pro/am dance competition, "Strictly Come Dancing" and, by inference, the "Dance with the Stars" US version. The intention one of covering the UK version's 2008 progress with a weekend entry on the show's events as well as other takes on a wide-range of subjects throughout the week.

Supplemented by personal and often irreverent takes on the subjects of entertainment, sport, art, and politics, together with life itself, Mr Glover provides us with a snapshot as life as it was in the year remaining after the disastrous banking-collapse impacting the lives of so many.

And not only economically.

With a cast-list that (to taste) consists of the stellar as well as the dire; there are over 200-pages waiting to either delight or antagonize the reader with his/hers own take on the same subjects.

The entries themselves take in luminaries from: Alec Guinness to Christopher Walken; Mozart to Pink Floyd; Turner to Bernini; and Barry Lyndon to Tunes of Glory - as well as (and again to taste) less substantial and admirable figures and organizations such as: Thatcher, Bin Laden, Brand, and UKIP, etc. -

Add to the above the writer's takes on James Bond, celebrity chef overkill, Political Correctness, and Sherlock Holmes, etc., and you have a collection of individual takes on the year of 2008 and its principals that is a mix of the irreverent, the lighthearted, the distasteful and, at times, tongue-in-cheek.

Not forgetting the approving, of course.

Enjoy.

Steve Glover is the writer of BBC Comedy, "Heartburn Hotel" - written in partnership with John Sullivan; an award-winning play; and the pseudonymous author of a number of fictional works as well as the ghost-writer of a well-known sportsman's autobiography.