Johann Hari reviews Unjust Rewards by Polly Toynbee and David Walker. The review prompts me to put the book on my "get it and read it list". By coincidence, I’m currently re-reading Urban Grimshaw and the Shed Crew by Bernard Hare. This is the true story of a 12 year-old boy (Urban Grimshaw) and his friends. As the dustjacket blurb says:
You’re twelve years old. Your mother’s a junkie and an alcoholic, your father might as well be dead. You can’t read, you can’t write, and you don’t go to school. While most kids your age are playing kiss-catch and computer games, you’re sniffing glue. An average day means sitting around a bonfire with your mates smoking drugs or stealing cars. You’ve spent years running away from children’s homes, but now you can run to the shed, where the crew is your family.
It’s a glimpse into a real hell, that is by turns terrifying, achingly sad and sidesplittingly funny. Worth reading, if only to realise that the systems in place as described by Toynbee and Walker will continue to produce generations of Urban Grimshaws.
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