‘Illuminating’ OBSERVER

We’ve all had our share of mould, dodgy landlords and awkward house shares.  But Kieran Yates has had more than most: by the age of twenty-five she’d lived in twenty different houses across the country.

In her coming-of-age memoir, she charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent searching for home.  Sparkling with warmth and wit, this is a story of finding beauty in our interiors, friendships in cramped flats, and home even in the most fragile circumstances. All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In is at once a rallying cry for change and a love letter to home in all its forms.

‘A beautiful exposition of home. Stunning’  BOLU BABALOLA

‘So incisive it’s hard to put down’  PANDORA SYKES  

‘Yates manages the unthinkable: she makes the housing crisis funny’i

‘I tore through the pages. A book I’ll read over and over again’  CANDICE CARTY-WILLIAMS

‘A beautiful exposition of home and what it means. Stunning‘  BOLU BABALOLA
____________________________________________

By the age of twenty-five journalist Kieran Yates had lived in twenty different houses across the country, from council estates in London to car showrooms in rural Wales. And in that time, between a series of evictions, mouldy flats and bizarre house-share interviews, the reality of Britain’s housing crisis grew more and more difficult to ignore.

In prose that sparkles with humour and warmth, Yates charts the heartbreaks and joys of a life spent navigating the chaos of the housing system. She exposes the issues underpinning the crisis, from the state’s neglect of social housing to the rental rat race, and the disproportionate toll these take on the most marginalised in society. Drawing on interviews with tenants across the country and the stories behind our interiors, she explores the unexpected ways we can fight back – finding beauty in the wreckage of a broken system, friendships in cramped housing conditions, and home even in the most fragile circumstances.

All the Houses I’ve Ever Lived In is at once a rallying cry for change and a love letter to home in all its forms.
__________________________________________

‘So incisive it’s hard to put down’  PANDORA SYKES

‘Moving and urgent’  LAURA BATES

‘Wholly transportive‘  CLARA AMFO

‘A powerful, personal and intricate tour of our housing system ? exposing who it works for and who it doesn’t’ BELL RIBEIRO-ADDY MP

The ‘duty of care’ which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed?

In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before covid) and AC (after covid). He looks back to Sir William Beveridge’s classic identification of the ‘five giants’ against which society had to battle – want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness – and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state in his wartime report. He examines the steady assault on the giants by successive post-war governments and asks what the comparable giants are now. He lays out the ‘road to 2045’ with ‘a new Beveridge’ to build a consensus for post-covid Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved by the first.

The ‘duty of care’ which the state owes to its citizens is a phrase much used, but what has it actually meant in Britain historically? And what should it mean in the future, once the immediate Covid crisis has passed?

In A Duty of Care, Peter Hennessy divides post-war British history into BC (before covid) and AC (after covid). He looks back to Sir William Beveridge’s classic identification of the ‘five giants’ against which society had to battle – want, disease, ignorance, squalor and idleness – and laid the foundations for the modern welfare state in his wartime report. He examines the steady assault on the giants by successive post-war governments and asks what the comparable giants are now. He lays out the ‘road to 2045’ with ‘a new Beveridge’ to build a consensus for post-covid Britain with the ambition and on the scale that was achieved by the first.

‘A story that desperately needed to be told‘ – Michael Sheen

Tony froze to death in the garden of the house he used to own. Aisha dreams of becoming a nurse, but spends night after night seeking a place to sleep. Jon is an expert at squatting, using his skills to keep others off the street. Jim turned a bus he bought on eBay into a portable shelter. David was a homeless army veteran on the verge of taking his own life when he was saved by Gavin’s kindness, now he’s a successful artist and activist.

Maeve McClenaghan has spent years investigating the crisis on Britain’s streets. These are only some of the stories of struggle, loss, survival and courage she has heard. No Fixed Abode will change how you think about homelessness and show you that this crisis is not impossible to solve.

This paperback edition includes a new preface covering the impact of Covid-19.

‘A much-needed antidote to the apathy that can often surround homelessness. It is movingly told, passionately argued and totally engrossing‘ – i

‘Urgent, gripping and devastating’ – The Secret Barrister

This book will finally give a face and a voice to those we so easily forget in our society. It will tell the highly personal, human and sometimes surprisingly uplifting stories of real people struggling in a crumbling system. By telling their stories, we will come to know these people; to know their hopes and fears, their complexities and their contradictions. We will learn a little more about human relationships, in all their messiness. And we’ll learn how, with just a little too much misfortune, any of us could find ourselves homeless, even become one of the hundreds of people dying on Britain’s streets.

As the number of rough sleepers skyrockets across the UK, No Fixed Abode by Maeve McClenaghan will also bring to light many of the ad-hoc projects attempting to address the problem. You will meet some of the courageous people who dedicate their lives to saving the forgotten of our society and see that the smallest act of kindness or affection can save a life.

This is a timely and important book encompassing wider themes of inequality and austerity measures; through the prism of homelessness, it offers a true picture of Britain today – and shows how terrifyingly close to breaking point we really are.

The Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.
Winner of the Orwell Prize.
Named the most ‘Rebellious Read of the 21st Century’ in a Scottish Book Trust poll.

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.

‘Another cry of anger from a working class that feels the pain of a rotten, failing system. Its value lies in the strength it will add to the movement for change.’ – Ken Loach, director of Kes