Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Immigration has completely changed the city. There’s a thriving community of Asian people.
- If you say Easterhouse to someone, the first thing they think of is normally gangs, violence and drugs.
- There was a family on my floor: a mum, dad, sister and two brothers. None of them made it out.
- The land was just sitting there and the idea came up about making an allotment on the bog land, so that the people in the community could grow their own fresh food.
- Living a life that is affected by austerity feels like a judgement from a Tory government of who I am. I don’t feel that there’s anybody looking out for my interests as a human being.
- When I first found out I had MND, Steph had just given birth to Ralphie, so we went from that amazing high to being told that I’d got something that could potentially kill me in two years.
- I felt like a little invisible shadow. People knew, but I couldn’t tell anyone, as I was so scared that my child would be taken away. I thought if I kept my mouth shut, then at least I had my daughter.
- Even as a kid going to school, I felt like teachers had a handbook on how to deal with particular kids when it came to race. They’re so quick to kick us out of school.
- Campaigning with DPAC – Disabled People Against Cuts – gave me direction. It kept me going when I would’ve given up.
- The cranes are like big guns aimed in on us. We are surrounded.
- I feel the country is more divided. Maybe because of Brexit, but it feels like the gap has widened between left and right.
- Emergency accommodation is supposed to mean anything from a week to six months. But I ended up being there for over a year.
- I think we are a great example that you can start your life over again at any age.
- A supervisor was bullying me, and when I confronted him he told me women are only here for having children, and called me a donkey.
- I think the EU got blamed for things it wasn’t responsible for, not that it was perfect. Some farmers saw the referendum as an opportunity to have change.
- There were nine of us, all musicians. I was the only one who could speak English, not good, but better than the others, so I volunteered to speak about asylum.
- It always seems to come down to money nowadays. And actually, what should be more important is what children need.
- I’ve been in trouble quite a lot in my life. Nothing too serious, and somehow I’ve only been to prison once.
- We don’t have to accept this attack on our living standards, we don’t have to accept the demonisation of the various minorities, be they disabled, poor, single parents, immigrants or refugees.
- I try and bring a sense of love, belonging and family to the women. I believe in every one of them and I will never stop.
- I’m passionate about young people knowing that everything is political.
- I just couldn’t move. I was on that many different opiates, my body couldn’t cope with it.
- The biggest thing for me about being a single parent is the fact that people do seem to think that it defines you in some way.
- Being a trans woman in the 70s was exceedingly difficult. We weren’t breaking Queen’s Regulations by being transgendered, but the military police thought that it could be used against us.
- Am I accepted because I’m the token black woman to make up a percentage of black artists, or for my hard work and talent?
- When I was selling drugs I was always thinking about the money. I didn’t actually see the effect it has on the users.
- Some people even say we might need a third referendum. What they really mean is we should keep voting until they get the answer they want.
- We need to look more widely at the contribution that black people have historically made to British society.
- The word ‘Islamophobia’ was something I learnt sometime after 9/11. Until then, I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know that it was called Islamophobia until it formed into this thing that had a name.
- The state of the country is terrible. Don’t even get me started. Theresa May, she gets on my nerves when she goes on.
- I struggle every day. I struggle to get up and even make myself food, and so I skip meals quite often.
- At first I thought it was a good thing to go on strike, but it became clear that Maggie Thatcher was going to close us down all the same.
- We’re still dealing with feudal law when it comes to housing, so we’re really up against it.
- I’ve heard it described as a battle, but for a battle both sides had to be armed. They had riot gear, helmets, padding, gauntlets, shields, three-foot batons. There was only one side armed.
- At the Edinburgh Festival they did a play set in Govanhill called ‘Govanhell’. Why would people in Edinburgh even know about Govanhill?
- The recession started again, hitting the building trade, and there was lots of pressure trying to keep everything together for the family. Things started to go wrong.
- I think applying for benefits is made really hard just to put people off. It can be the most stressful, soul-destroying thing ever in your life.
- People here don’t want a border back because of all the trouble there was. There were a lot of bombs, over at the garage. The windows of this pub would be put in from the bang of the bombs.
- In my first week at the London School of Economics a student told me I was part of the underclass because my family received benefits, and a lecturer said ‘Poor people don’t come to LSE’.
- Mental illness isn’t universal. You can’t just give somebody one thing and they feel better. Everybody has their own way of coping.
- When you’re an immigrant you feel like an invisible part of Britain. Until you’re ingrained in the culture, you’re not seen or heard.
- Photographers’ Biographies
The recession started again, hitting the building trade, and there was lots of pressure trying to keep everything together for the family. Things started to go wrong.
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 April 2023
Edited by
Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Acknowledgements
- Foreword
- Introduction
- Immigration has completely changed the city. There’s a thriving community of Asian people.
- If you say Easterhouse to someone, the first thing they think of is normally gangs, violence and drugs.
- There was a family on my floor: a mum, dad, sister and two brothers. None of them made it out.
- The land was just sitting there and the idea came up about making an allotment on the bog land, so that the people in the community could grow their own fresh food.
- Living a life that is affected by austerity feels like a judgement from a Tory government of who I am. I don’t feel that there’s anybody looking out for my interests as a human being.
- When I first found out I had MND, Steph had just given birth to Ralphie, so we went from that amazing high to being told that I’d got something that could potentially kill me in two years.
- I felt like a little invisible shadow. People knew, but I couldn’t tell anyone, as I was so scared that my child would be taken away. I thought if I kept my mouth shut, then at least I had my daughter.
- Even as a kid going to school, I felt like teachers had a handbook on how to deal with particular kids when it came to race. They’re so quick to kick us out of school.
- Campaigning with DPAC – Disabled People Against Cuts – gave me direction. It kept me going when I would’ve given up.
- The cranes are like big guns aimed in on us. We are surrounded.
- I feel the country is more divided. Maybe because of Brexit, but it feels like the gap has widened between left and right.
- Emergency accommodation is supposed to mean anything from a week to six months. But I ended up being there for over a year.
- I think we are a great example that you can start your life over again at any age.
- A supervisor was bullying me, and when I confronted him he told me women are only here for having children, and called me a donkey.
- I think the EU got blamed for things it wasn’t responsible for, not that it was perfect. Some farmers saw the referendum as an opportunity to have change.
- There were nine of us, all musicians. I was the only one who could speak English, not good, but better than the others, so I volunteered to speak about asylum.
- It always seems to come down to money nowadays. And actually, what should be more important is what children need.
- I’ve been in trouble quite a lot in my life. Nothing too serious, and somehow I’ve only been to prison once.
- We don’t have to accept this attack on our living standards, we don’t have to accept the demonisation of the various minorities, be they disabled, poor, single parents, immigrants or refugees.
- I try and bring a sense of love, belonging and family to the women. I believe in every one of them and I will never stop.
- I’m passionate about young people knowing that everything is political.
- I just couldn’t move. I was on that many different opiates, my body couldn’t cope with it.
- The biggest thing for me about being a single parent is the fact that people do seem to think that it defines you in some way.
- Being a trans woman in the 70s was exceedingly difficult. We weren’t breaking Queen’s Regulations by being transgendered, but the military police thought that it could be used against us.
- Am I accepted because I’m the token black woman to make up a percentage of black artists, or for my hard work and talent?
- When I was selling drugs I was always thinking about the money. I didn’t actually see the effect it has on the users.
- Some people even say we might need a third referendum. What they really mean is we should keep voting until they get the answer they want.
- We need to look more widely at the contribution that black people have historically made to British society.
- The word ‘Islamophobia’ was something I learnt sometime after 9/11. Until then, I didn’t know what it was. I didn’t know that it was called Islamophobia until it formed into this thing that had a name.
- The state of the country is terrible. Don’t even get me started. Theresa May, she gets on my nerves when she goes on.
- I struggle every day. I struggle to get up and even make myself food, and so I skip meals quite often.
- At first I thought it was a good thing to go on strike, but it became clear that Maggie Thatcher was going to close us down all the same.
- We’re still dealing with feudal law when it comes to housing, so we’re really up against it.
- I’ve heard it described as a battle, but for a battle both sides had to be armed. They had riot gear, helmets, padding, gauntlets, shields, three-foot batons. There was only one side armed.
- At the Edinburgh Festival they did a play set in Govanhill called ‘Govanhell’. Why would people in Edinburgh even know about Govanhill?
- The recession started again, hitting the building trade, and there was lots of pressure trying to keep everything together for the family. Things started to go wrong.
- I think applying for benefits is made really hard just to put people off. It can be the most stressful, soul-destroying thing ever in your life.
- People here don’t want a border back because of all the trouble there was. There were a lot of bombs, over at the garage. The windows of this pub would be put in from the bang of the bombs.
- In my first week at the London School of Economics a student told me I was part of the underclass because my family received benefits, and a lecturer said ‘Poor people don’t come to LSE’.
- Mental illness isn’t universal. You can’t just give somebody one thing and they feel better. Everybody has their own way of coping.
- When you’re an immigrant you feel like an invisible part of Britain. Until you’re ingrained in the culture, you’re not seen or heard.
- Photographers’ Biographies
Summary
I was born in Leatherhead in Surrey in 1970. I had a good marriage, two daughters, then round about 2007 I lost two very close friends. One was a guiding figure and he just dropped dead. Second friend, he was killed in a motorcycle accident.
In 2008, I wasn’t coping really well. The recession started again, hitting the building trade, and there was lots of pressure trying to keep everything together for the family. Things started to go wrong.
I started to drink. Not heavily, but it was a support mechanism, trying to forget things. I didn’t realise, but depression started to creep in. I was becoming more distant from my family, losing interest in things that I enjoyed and loved, and eventually got into trouble with the police.
At this point the country was in full recession. There were lots of spending cutbacks. I was going to probation once every fortnight. Because of the cutbacks I was seeing a new officer each time. There was no continuity. I’d tell my story, and in the following weeks I’d see a totally new person and had to tell the story again. I was never achieving anything. We were wasting each other’s time. I stopped going. This landed me back in court and led to a 12-week prison sentence.
I was in prison in Bedford when my wife moved out of the marital home with the children. I discovered she was having an affair. She moved in with her boyfriend somewhere in the depths of Oxfordshire. It was a good thing I was in prison at that time, otherwise I would have got myself into a lot more trouble. It gave me time to get over it, think about it, by the time I was released. Although my wife is still supportive, I came out of prison to the family home and it was empty.
Eventually the house was repossessed and I found myself having to find somewhere, renting a bedroom in Hemel Hempstead. But offences led to more prison time, until I was released in April 2017. And that was me done.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Invisible BritainPortraits of Hope and Resilience, pp. 87Publisher: Bristol University PressPrint publication year: 2018