Poverty Safari

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE 2018

Darren McGarvey has experienced poverty and its devastating effects first-hand. He knows why people from deprived communities all around Britain feel angry and unheard. And he wants to explain . . .

So he invites you to come on a safari of sorts. But not the kind where the wildlife is surveyed from a safe distance. This book takes you inside the experience of poverty to show how the pressures really feel and how hard their legacy is to overcome.

Arguing that both the political left and right misunderstand poverty as it is actually lived, McGarvey sets out what everybody - including himself - could do to change things. Razor-sharp, fearless and brutally honest, Poverty Safari is an unforgettable insight into modern Britain.

'It made me see the country and its social condition in a new light.'
Andrew Adonis, Chair of Judges, Orwell Prize 2018

'Nothing less than an intellectual and spiritual rehab manual for the progressive left.' Irvine Welsh, author of Trainspotting

'A painfully honest autobiographical study of deprivation . . . this urgently written, articulate and emotional book is a bracing contribution to the debate' Financial Times