Lowborn
Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain's Poorest Towns
Published on 16. May 2019
Book
Hardback
256 pages
978-1-78474-245-4 (ISBN)
Description
A powerful, personal agenda-changing exploration of poverty in today's Britain.
'One of the most important books of the year' Guardian
'When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you are worth nothing to society, can you ever escape that sense of being 'lowborn' no matter how far you've come?'
Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma.
Twenty years later, Kerry's life is unrecognisable. She's a prizewinning novelist who has travelled the world. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books. But she often finds herself looking over her shoulder, caught somehow between two worlds.
Lowborn is Kerry's exploration of where she came from. She revisits the towns she grew up in to try to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed.
**A Stylist Book of the Decade**
'One of the most important books of the year' Guardian
'When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you are worth nothing to society, can you ever escape that sense of being 'lowborn' no matter how far you've come?'
Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma.
Twenty years later, Kerry's life is unrecognisable. She's a prizewinning novelist who has travelled the world. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books. But she often finds herself looking over her shoulder, caught somehow between two worlds.
Lowborn is Kerry's exploration of where she came from. She revisits the towns she grew up in to try to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed.
**A Stylist Book of the Decade**
Reviews / Votes
I loved Lowborn... A powerful exploration of Hudson's working-class childhood and its legacy -- David Nicholls, author of One Day Elegant, compassionate and powerful... tells the hidden story of what it means to be poor in Britain today -- Charlotte Heathcote * Sunday Express * Compelling, fascinating and well-written, undeniably grim but peppered with humour and tenderness...Hudson demonstrates that only by lifting whole communities out of poverty...can we hope to avoid consigning children and young people like her - vulnerable and blameless - to the worst of lives -- Kit de Waal * Daily Telegraph * Lowborn is an insider's view of the complexities of modern-day poverty, written with humour and compassion, but without judgement. It should be required reading for anyone who unknowingly believes poverty is a personal choice and that if you work hard enough you'll avoid its fate... a fearless writer, an inspiring woman -- Jackie Annesley * Sunday Times * Lowborn is in part an indictment of a country that claims to still have a functioning welfare state... Most of all, it is a moving portrait of the survival and eventual flourishing of a remarkable spirit -- John Harris * Guardian * Totally engrossing and deliciously feisty...It really brings home how under-represented working class lives and impoverished childhoods have been in our literary culture' * Bernadine Evaristo * Where there are few working-class stories, there are fewer still from working-class women. Lowborn stands out as rare, as well as compassionately and skilfully told... Some books help us understand the world around us. Others do that, and make us feel less alone in it, too. Lowborn is one such book, holding out a hand of friendship to anyone who might pick it up and find something forgotten or familiar among its pages -- Laura Waddell * Scotsman * Beautifully written but with emotional hand grenades detonating on almost every page...a breathtaking odyssey -- Stephen McGinty * Sunday Times * Kerry Hudson invites us to really understand the complexities of being born working class in Britain. Buy it, read it, tell everyone about it -- Jack Monroe I wish I'd had access to such honest and relatable work as Hudson's when I was younger. She proves that successful women can have a working-class story -- Hollie Richardson * Stylist * Kerry Hudson blew me away, opened my eyes -- Philippa Perry, author of The Book You Wish Your Parents Had Read * You're Booked * Hudson has written a moving and readable account of growing up in the poorest section of society. Her book is also a meditation on social mobility... Hudson's life is proof that a person can, against the odds, make a success of themselves. In Lowborn, she shows us very clearly why so many do not -- James Bloodworth * The Times * Lowborn is the opposite of a misery memoir. The chapters alternate between Hudson's raw memories and accounts of her present-day attempts to confront them. There's warmth and courage as well as pain and ultimately triumph here * New Statesman * A book that cuts like a knife * Spectator * Paints a near-dystopian portrait of Brexit-age Britain... Lowborn is a powerful testimonial... Here's hoping it gives others the courage to tell their version of this story, at high volume -- Peter Murphy * Irish Times *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 222 mm
Width: 144 mm
Thickness: 26 mm
Weight
377 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78474-245-4 (9781784742454)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Kerry Hudson was born in Aberdeen. Her first novel, Tony Hogan Bought Me an Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, won the Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust First Book Award and was shortlisted for an array of prizes including the Guardian First Book Award and the Sky Arts Awards. Thirst, her second novel, won the prestigious prix Femina etranger. Lowborn is her first work of non-fiction, and her journey has led to a highly successful column for the Pool. She currently lives in Liverpool.