Product Description

Nick Danziger began his journey in June 1994, as newspapers and magazines throughout the land commemorated the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings and recalled the Allies' war aims (to "afford assurance that all men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want"). For the best part of a year, he lived among the homeless and unemployed in many of the ruined manufacturing and so-called "no-go" areas of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. With courage and sensitivity, he won the trust of the street children and shared the lives and heard the stories of hundreds of society's outsiders. A powerful and disturbing documentary (with 48 pages of his own photographs) of life in Britain for a forgotten section of society in the mid-1990s, and a tribute to the resilience of individuals faced with overwhelming odds.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #200196 in Books
• Published on: 1997-09-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 356 pages

Customer Reviews

thought provoking and fascinating
I have recently read this book and I found it to be an eye opening experience. I found it one of those books it is impossible to put down, as Nick Danziger travels around the UK meeting people from the the North of Scotland to Leicester to Brighton I became totally absorbed in his journey. Some people have commented that some of the characters in the book are too similar and should not have all been included, I found the fact that the same stories and problems cropped up time and again to be very depressing. Nick Danziger describes parts of the UK that most people are fortunate enough to never experience. It made me very grateful for what I have and it made me realise how lucky I am. I think that every politicain should read this immediately and learn about what is *really* going on in some parts of the UK. Despite the fact this book was written in 1995 it is unfortunately as relevant today as it was then. A fantastic book that I would reccomend to anyone. It is not necessarily a happy or easy book to read, but it should be read anyway.

Required Reading
Wow. What a depressing book. In it, Danziger (Danziger's Adventures) recounts his attempt to discover, interview, and photograph "the huge ranks of the excluded and marginalized people of Great Britain." Danziger covers the gamut, from inner city, to tiny village, from recent immigrants, to the purest English, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland, everywhere...

None of what he describes (children drug addicts, single mothers, welfare catch-22s, no future) would be considered particularly newsworthy in the US, on its own, but it does shatter the common perception Americans tend to hold of Great Britain. A polar opposite to Bill Brysons's fairly affectionate British travelogue, Notes From a Small Island. This is crucial reading for anyone interested in modern Britain.

Provoking
A very interesting book that chronicles the lives of many in some of the most impoverished parts of the UK. There were times, however, when I felt the some of the characters were too similar to warrant a mention. These are the people we tend to forget, and this book makes a terrific attempt to give them a voice.

Despite being researched in 1995, it is just as relevant seven years later -- that is a great shame.