"The Bedside Guardian 2010" brings together the very best writing and photography from a tumultuous year in Britain and abroad. The centrepiece of the political year was an enthralling general election: the first televised leader debates, the Liberal Democrat surge, the scramble to assemble a government from a hung parliament, and the cuts agenda pursued by the new coalition. The highs and lows are all vividly documented and debated here by writers including Marina Hyde, Polly Toynbee, Jonathan Freedland, Andrew Sparrow, Larry Elliott, John Crace, Simon Hoggart and others. Ian Jack provides the narrative for Martin Argles' powerful and poignant last photographs of Gordon Brown. Further afield, the events in Copenhagen and a thorny year for environment policy are described by John Vidal, Mark Lynas and George Monbiot. Sixty years on, Tania Branigan talks to those who were at the heart of China's communist revolution. Gary Younge grapples with the deranged American right. Rory Carroll visits earthquake-shattered Haiti. Henning Mankell recounts his experience aboard the Gaza flotilla. David Leigh unpicks the leaked Afghanistan war logs. Stephen Moss reports from the demonstrations in Athens. Paul Hayward laments another early England exit at the World Cup in South Africa. Other highlights include a moving return to Derry by Simon Winchester, Hilary Mantel on the joys of stationery, Simon Hattenstone's jaw-droppingly candid interview with George Michael, Diana Athill on moving into an old people's home, Lionel Shriver on friendship, Simon Jenkins on volcano ash as the new swine flu hysteria, Steve Bell on the cartoonist's lot and Charlie Brooker on hateful columnists.