Full Description
Over a dozen years into austerity, statistical warning lights are
flashing to suggest a return to types of deprivation we once imagined we had
consigned to history. In the decade up to the pandemic, the official count of
rough sleepers and recorded malnutrition in hospital patients both doubled,
while recourse to food banks rocketed by an order of magnitude.
And yet it has never been statistics but rather individual human stories
- from the fictionalised accounts of Dickens to the faithful reporting of
Orwell and Priestley - that have seared the reality of hard times into the
public imagination. In Broke, Tom Clark assembles today's masters of
social reportage to go deep into the communities so often ignored by
politicians, introducing us to those at the hardest end of the poverty crisis.
Contributions from Jem Bartholomew, Cal Flyn, Dani Garavelli, Frances Ryan,
Samira Shackle, Daniel Trilling and Jennifer Williams and a foreword by Kerry
Hudson unflinchingly reveal the contemporary experience of cold, hunger,
homelessness, disease, debt, disability, punishing work and an immigration
system that makes people destitute by design.
With Joel Goodman's photography bringing the characters to life, and
some of the writers having had first-hand experience of the issues raised, Broke
blends powerful human stories with analysis of the policies that have led us to
this point - and the reforms we urgently need.
All royalties will be donated to Leeds Asylum
Seekers' Support Network
