Writer and musician Stu Hennigan volunteered to deliver food and emergency medication in the town of Leeds, UK, during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

He saw poverty at a scale he had not experienced before, a level of deprivation and hopelessness he and probably most middle-class (or even working-class) folks never deemed possible, at least not in a modern, “civilized” Western democracy.

Spoiler alert: I have seen it as a delivery guy in Los Angeles in the late 90s, I have seen it as a civil service worker in Germany in the early 90s. My wife sees it everyday as a lawyer turned social worker.

Nonetheless, Stu’s diary “Ghost Signs” is a magnificent and important book for those who deny that economic inequality and the criminalizing of poverty is THE issue of our time (maybe close second to the climate crises, but these things are related anyhow …)

Showtime as always at 12pm SLT. Come and bring your take on the matter, maybe with ideas how to fix it? But please be prepared to get pushback from yours truly if your prescription falls along the lines of more neoliberal dogma … sorry folks: this is my show after all! No offense …

Meantime: visit the Book Club archipelago and watch past shows via the playlist below:

If you'd like to suggest an author, please email slbookclub@draxtor.com.