English Poverty

Nobody who works hard should be poor in America, writes Pulitzer Prize-winner David Shipler. Clear-headed, rigorous, and compassionate, he journeys deeply into the lives of individual store clerks and factory workers, farm laborers and sweat-shop seamstresses, illegal immigrants in menial jobs and Americans saddled with immense student loans and paltry wages. They are known as the working poor.

In this thought-provoking historical and economic analysis, Laurel A. Rockefeller takes on poverty culture head-on, exploring what it means to be poor in the United States. She also takes a look at how America's closest, and much more economically successful, allies (Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom) take care of their poor.

Read by the author, Dragged Up Proppa is the story of growing up working class in a forgotten England. 'Very compelling, beautifully written memoir of a time and England that no longer exists but remains just as important today as ever' – Sebastian Payne, author of Broken Heartlands Pip Fallow...

Alicia Woodman was born into a home that should have been filled with comfort and joy. Her mother Elizabeth was bright and vivacious, Humphrey Woodman was a prosperous businessman. But Alicia was not Humphrey’s child and he would have nothing to do with her, and before long Elizabeth, too, turned her back on her daughter. It was left to Polly Ford, widow of a dock labourer, to bring Alicia up, to teach her to say ‘Yes, Mama’ and to give the child the love she so desperately needed.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to How the Other Half Lives and learn about the conditions of abject poverty that the residents of the slums of New York at the end of the 19th century had to endure.

As a Man Thinketh is an inspirational book by James Allen, first published in 1903. It deals with the power of thought, and particularly with the use and application of thought to create happy and prosperous circumstances. The writing is simple, so that all can easily grasp the teachings and put the methods into practice. In the earlier work, From Poverty to Power: The Realization of Prosperity and Peace, (1901) Allen emphasizes that a disciplined mind and a focus on serving others are the keys to achieving prosperity.

Shortlisted for the first ever Booker Prize 'A masterpiece' - Douglas Stuart, author of Shuggie Bain 'An extraordinary novel' - Michael Magee, author of Close to Home 'It deserves its modern classic status' - The Times It’s the west of Scotland in the 1950s. New houses are going up. Factories...

Brought to you by Penguin. 1929. Holcombe Hall, Lancashire Holcombe Hall’s enigmatic owner has passed away, and now as the roaring twenties come to an end the upstairs and downstairs residents of Holcombe Hall begin a new era. Parlour maid Florrie Bickerstaff has always endured the quick...

Riveting, powerful, and a little bit magical, Fault Lines offers readers a slow-burn romance alongside an unflinching examination of socio-economics, gender expectations, and environmental ethics. Gold Winner of the 2024 Nautilus Book Award for Young Adult (YA) Fiction Ever since her aunt died...

Angelina and Zack couldn’t be anymore different; one lives in apparent riches and the other in poverty. They meet online and a friendship blooms, but then things in Angelina’s life take a turn for the worst and she finds herself turning to the only person she thinks loves her – Zack. With everything against them, can Zack and Angelina cross the distance to change her life before it's too late?

Professional distance runners Elvin Kibet and Shadrack Kipchirchir grew up in rural Kenyan villages. Though their lives began in poverty, both were driven to reach their full potential, to gain an education, and make a difference. And they would find their way to do just that through the high-pressure world of distance running.

Barely Missing Everything meets American Street in this “well-plotted, taut page-turner” (Booklist, starred review) that looks at the darker side of light-filled Jamaica and how a tragedy and missing drug money helplessly entangle the lives of two teens who want to change their fate. Deja is...

From a pioneering advocate for LGBTQ youth, a gripping, impassioned account of how an unhoused queer youth’s murder compelled him to create the nation’s largest housing program for homeless LGBTQ teens. “A gut-wrenchingly poignant real-life saga . . . Carl Siciliano has written an...

The Cyrenian Way: Spiritual Poverty & the Art of Accompaniment is a call to all Catholic Christians throughout the world, as well as to all people of faith to acknowledge their spiritual poverty as the greatest treasure that one could ever possess.

NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE An immersive debut set across the temples, slums, and gated estates of late-twentieth century Bangkok, telling the story of three families striving to control their destinies in a merciless, sometimes brutally violent, metropolis. “Mai Nardone is a writer...

A warmly funny, intensely moving and startlingly personal account of the lives of an urban parish priest and his parishioners. Father Alex Frost was not always a man of the cloth. He found his calling while running an Argos store in his native Burnley, moonlighting as a stand-up comedian and...

It's the 1940s and WWll is raging! There are six girls and three boys living with Mam in a log cabin with no electricity or running water. Pap comes home only when he feels the notion - so life's not easy. The struggles become even more real when 13-year-old Retha Pogue sees her brother, Wilburn, drafted and going off to war. Surprising twists await in this gripping tale of what life was really like for so many families. And you're invited! Come get to know Mam and the children by listening to their stories.

The Orphanage Girls is a gritty and moving historical saga set in London’s East End, from the bestselling author of The Jam Factory Girls, Mary Wood. Children deserve a family to call their own . . . Ruth dares to dream of another life – far away from the horrors within the walls of Bethnal...

A vividly written and timely polemic tackling the burning injustices shaping British society today. ‘Intelligently written and powerfully argued.’ Paul Mason ‘Witty, scathing, and entertaining.’ Danny Dorling Journalist Sam Bright is a Northerner living in London. He is just one of the...

The sometimes fragmentary tales of these people, their lives and deaths, are not included in official histories of a place. How, Ensign asks, has a large, socially progressive city like Seattle responded to the health needs of people marginalized by poverty, mental illness, addiction, racial/ethnic/sexual identities, and homelessness? Drawing on interviews and extensive research, Ensign shares a diversity of voices within contemporary health care and public policy debates.