It is hardly revolutionary to declare that Caitlin Moran is a very good writer. It is actually official: she has journalistic awards coming out of her ears.  But Moran has, of late, gained a more popular reputation.

Her exposure soared after the publication of her hilarious feminist polemic How To Be A Woman and it has become commonplace to see her book adorning shop displays and being read on the tube; The Daily Mail even ran pictures of Kate Moss on holiday reading the book as she frolicked with Jamie Hince. Moran has really done rather well.

Yet as wonderful and as popular as that book was, it is in Moranthology, a collection of journalism from her past eighteen years at The Times, that we see Caitlin at her best. Most of her seminal work is here, including the interviews with Lady Gaga and Paul McCartney, as well as a vast array of her comic columns.

There is much that seems a logical continuation (or, perhaps more accurately, a pre-figuration) of How To Be A Woman. Moran offers her witty opinions on the burqa, the fashion industry and the women dancing in pop-videos: ‘Just checkin’ my legs are still there.’ It showcases Moran as we have seen her before and it makes us laugh.

Yet even if we agree with the blurb of Moranthology that the only drawback about her bestselling book was that Moran was ‘limited to pretty much one subject: being a woman’, it would be equally limiting to see this new book solely as proof that she can actually be ‘quite chatty’ about many other things. In fact, it shows that she can be far more than ‘quite chatty’. Moran has serious opinions about weighty political, economic and ethical topics, from libraries to benefits and poverty.

Being brought up on disability benefit, homeschooled and the eldest of eight children means that she writes from personal experience and often with a grace that is almost poetic. When discussing the plight of those who are forced to move cities when their disability benefits are cut, she produces some of the most poignant, elegant and powerful lines of the whole collection:  ‘Tiny little rooted lives, sliced through with a spade. A whole country changed, with a single shiver – circles radiating out of Westminster.’

It must be said that I didn’t approach this review as either a neutral observer or a Moran-novice. I have saved most of Moran’s columns and features for the past five years and I had both of her books on pre-order. I love her writing; however, from this collection, it is very easy to see why. Moran is a journalist and commentator who has much more to talk about than women alone and in Moranthology she is at her broadest and best.