I have always been interested in socioeconomics and poverty, and this book from Matthew Small really caught my eye. When my preview copy arrived I read it very quickly. It is a good book. It is well researched and asks important questions. The comparison between poverty in India and poverty in the UK is an interesting one. The truth is there is really no comparison, in India you have slums, in the UK you have a welfare system. The parallels are interesting. You have the Big Issue seller who doesn’t think he is poor because he has what he needs, people who work hard but life beats them down. Those in India with no safety net. Many of the stories in this book haunted me. Especially the one about a a little girl and a baby boy both sleeping on the streets at night. They were alone with no adult, the little girl asleep, using a plastic bag full of rubbish as a pillow and the baby boy, presumably her brother, wearing nothing but a ripped T shirt, bare bottom on the concrete. The baby was gurgling and laughing, playing with a piece of paper on the street, sticking it in his mouth the way babies do. Smalls says he is haunted by this and it is the worst thing he has ever seen but nothing is done. I often think of the child and infant. I have even tried to find them via the internet. I can just hope that someone took pity on them and lifted them from their plight. We live in such a sad world and I can’t help but think more can be done It made me so proud of my own country and our welfare and NHS. You cannot say we do not help the poor. Those who are homeless long term tend to have mental health issues or drug or alcohol problems. Because of this I feel that is where we should turn our efforts in the UK: to those with mental health problems or addiction. This book is a good book but also a haunting one. More importantly, if anyone could let me know what happened to those poor children I would be eternal grateful.

Down and Out Today: Notes from the Gutter is available here.

This is a topical book exploring the meaning of poverty today; questioning whether poverty is specific only to money. The book explores poverty across contemporary society and cultures specifically looking at UK poverty (in Bath) in comparison to India.

Second book from the popular ‘Notes From’ series, with the first book The Wall Between Us endorsed by Jon Snow. The book includes powerful images from Matthew’s travels.

What does poverty mean today? Writer Matthew Small seeks to answer this question and witness the similarities and differences between poverty in the UK and India.

Poverty stretches across all of humanity and by travelling East, Small encounters the raw faces of poverty in India’s slums; he works in a leprosy community, joins the Sisters of Mercy on the littered yet exhilarating streets of Kolkata. He then returns to the UK, to Bath, to see what the passing of three months means to those who are scarred by one of the most unglamorous of all humanities’ ills, being poor.

Small engages with different community members who are living with poverty, to answer these long standing questions: What’s keeping them down? What’s pushing them out? And how can we move forward?