2014 was a memorable year for the Guardian. In the space of a few weeks it won the Newspaper of the Year award, the European Press Prize for journalism, and - the ultimate honour - the Pulitzer Prize for its groundbreaking articles on NSA surveillance. It's been a memorable year for news, too - from floods to air disasters, the hacking trial to the Scottish referendum, the rise of Farage to the fall of Clifford. We have seen the world come together for a football tournament and divide under religious extremism, witnessed the phrases 'conscious uncoupling' and 'Benefits Street' enter our vocabulary, and discovered the mysterious hold the song from Frozen has on our pre-teens. Here, in our annual collection of the best journalism of the past twelve months, we showcase the range of voices that makes up the Guardian in all its eclectic glory: some hard-hitting and thought-provoking, others witty and unashamedly frivolous. The one thing all these pieces have in common is that they remind us of the joy and power of the written word.