"2023 was a year of rapid change. Events piled upon events as in a game of whist; ever better cards falling on top of others, the next one trumping the last in an excess of superlatives. Nothing stayed still for long. At times it was dizzying.
And what did we glean from what we saw? We learned that suddenly the tiniest of gaps can become a chasm. Once the breach has been made, however slight, it takes no more than a little continued pressure for everything to fall apart at once, and at a violent pace. We are left wondering how it ever held together for so long, witnesses to the speed at which things unravel, understanding with new clarity that perhaps it was always going to collapse. We just didn’t see it coming." Ned Boulting, The Road Book editor
Read the full introduction in The Road Book 2023