60 The Social Distance Between Us by Darren McGarvey
“Put simply, if all the best people are in all the top jobs, why is Britain such a fucking bin fire?”
That is the pull quote, and it’s certainly one of the pervasive themes of this book. McGarvey – who wrote Poverty Safari – explores how (essentially) how class and a disconnect between the people who make decisions and the people who those decisions affect is embedding inequality and creating new ones. There’s actually a lot more to it than a rant about elitism, although there is a lot of ranting. He begins with a deep dive into a range of different topics, from employment to education, which unpacks how policy has entrenched structural issues, and created multiple stratas of society which it is hard, though not impossible (as McGarvey himself acknowledges) to move between. Then he moves into looking at the culpability of different parties, and the role of populism. It’s a fantastic dive into the British class system, with a good mix of opinion, data and anecdote. It’s not a comfortable read - it made me consider my privilege in a very different and challenging way, and really think about how my choices compound the problem. I’d have liked a bit more forward looking analysis – how does the green transition or the rise of AI compound or change the landscape? But that is a minor quibble, and even if you don’t agree with McGarvey’s politics or approach to the problem, everyone would benefit from reading this.
61 Fairy Tale by Stephen King
Listened to this on Audible, because he really does get all the best narrators, and this was no different.
It’s long, and in fact the actual “fairy tale” doesn’t really get going until almost half way through the book, although there are clues that something is afoot. Charlie is an almost too good to be true teenager (I wasn’t actually convinced by Charlie’s character, despite his regular reminders to the reader that he’d done the occasional bad thing, but that’s a side note) who rescues an old man after a fall, and begins to take care of his house, his dog (the dog is important) and the man on his release from hospital. Turns out the old man has a big secret, and Charlie – in the best traditions of fairy tales – sets out on a quest in a land of fairy tale characters and a very big bad thing.
On reflection, the whole reason for Charlie’s decision to go to the land of Empis is…a bit flimsy and I didn’t really believe in that side of things. And there were plot lines that never really got picked up again, or that seemed a bit superfluous to the narrative. But – as ever – King tells a great story, and the first half in particular was surprisingly gripping considering that nothing much happens apart from Charlie assuming a role as a hyper-diligent carer to a grumpy old man. I was really invested in the story of Empis, and the central episode built around Charlie’s capture by the baddies and his escape was horrifying in a really subtle and alarming way.
62 A People’s Church by Jeremy Morris
A history of the Church of England that kicks off in Tudor times and runs more or less to the present day (though interestingly he barely mentions the fact that – at the time of writing – it was clear that there would soon be a new head of the Church of England in the form of Charles III. Indeed, the Queen only gets two mentions. While it’s probably true that the monarch no longer has much sway over Church matters in any way that matters, an established Church where bishops make decisions about laws is kind of a big deal constitutionally, and I’d have liked more about that. There’s a tonne of detail here, and I learned a lot about the Dissenters, the Reformation and the role of the Church in shaping modern Britain.
63 Strangers on a Train by Jenny Diski
Diski took two long distance rail journeys in the US, and this is the story of her trip. There is a lot of smoking in smoking carriages and on platforms. There is some terrible food, some brief encounters and some wonderful landscape. She links the transit of the US to her experience riding the Circle line as an unhappy teenager and reflects on her mental health issues as she does it. I never quite engaged with this in the way I wanted to, but I flew through it so it must have been better than I realised. I shall revisit some of her LRB articles, as I do remember always enjoying them.