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  • Published: 7 April 2022
  • ISBN: 9781473566811
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

The Social Distance Between Us

How Remote Politics Wrecked Britain




Orwell Prize-winner Darren McGarvey uncovers the truth about inequality in Britain in this searing critique of our remote, ineffective political systems

*A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK*
*SHORTLISTED FOR THE RATHBONES FOLIO PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION*
*LONGLISTED FOR THE RSL ONDAATJE PRIZE*

'An Orwell for today's poor' - The Times
'The standout, authentic voice of a generation' Herald
'McGarvey is a rarity: a working-class writer who has fought to make the middle-class world hear what he has to say' Nick Cohen, Guardian

Why are the rich getting richer while the poor only get poorer? How is it possible that in a wealthy, civilised democracy cruelty and inequality are perpetuated by our own public services? And how come, if all the best people are in all the top jobs, Britain is such an unmitigated bin fire?

Join Darren McGarvey on a journey through a divided Britain in search of answers. Here, our latter-day Orwell exposes the true scale of Britain's social ills and reveals why our current political class, those tasked with bringing solutions, are so distanced from our lived experience that they are the last people you'd want fighting your corner.

Praise for Darren McGarvey:

'Utterly compelling' Ian Rankin, New Statesman

'Brilliant' Russell Brand

'An absolutely fascinating individual' Owen Jones

'Offer[s] an antidote to populist anger that transcends left and right... articulate and emotional' Financial Times

  • Published: 7 April 2022
  • ISBN: 9781473566811
  • Imprint: Ebury Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 400

About the author

Darren McGarvey

Darren McGarvey, aka LOKI, grew up in Pollok. He is a writer, performer, community activist and columnist, and former rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit. He was part of the Poverty Truth Commission that was hosted in Glasgow in 2009 and has presented eight programmes for BBC Scotland exploring the root causes of anti-social behaviour and social deprivation. His bestselling and acclaimed first book Poverty Safari was awarded the Orwell Prize.

Praise for The Social Distance Between Us

An Orwell for today's poor... By the end readers will be left in no doubt about the fact that our society is still riven by class inequality

The Times

This is McGarvey at his best, asking discomfiting questions of many-most?-of his readers and also pointing out that class inequality is endlessly reproduced by people who either do well out of it or are too institutionalised to see what is in front of them. The quality of McGarvey's reporting and storytelling is first-rate... he makes no end of astute points

John Harris, Observer (Book of the Week)

Vital and indispensable. Documents how we succeeded in creating a 21st century ruling class who - in their complacency, their lack of engagement, their blinkered ideology and dead-hand managerialism - are themselves, now, the principal source of the social problems they so confidently locate elsewhere, and which they therefore cannot even begin to solve

Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman

An essential read for every politician, civil servant, councillor, charity worker, police officer and teacher. [An] angry, but controlled, expose of the wide gap between Britain's decision-makers and those most affected by their thoughtless, stupid or selfish actions.

Susan Dalgety, The Scotsman

Breaks your heart and boils your blood

The Big Issue