Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain's Poorest Towns by Kerry Hudson

4.19 AVERAGE

ciao_itsvaleria's profile picture

ciao_itsvaleria's review against another edition

5.0
challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
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danjbrownuk's review against another edition

4.0
Prose/Readability: 5
Author’s Commitment to Objective Truth: 3
Interesting Content: 5
Perspective Shift: 3

Comments:

joshua_collings's review against another edition

5.0
My initial thought was that this would be a documentary on life in poverty, which it was, but it became much more personal and thought provoking, as you explore the author's own experiences. It's clear she had a very difficult and traumatising childhood, dealing with her Mum's partners, verbal abuse, alcohol problems, periods of foster care, poor living conditions and constant upheaval to new homes. You develop a very close connection with the author as she reveals how she felt and how she coped. The structuring of the book of a chapter on a place she lived, followed by a present day chapter of her revisiting the place worked well, as it allowed you to see how much of an impact life in the different areas had on her. You also get to see if things have really changed 20 or so years on. I found the whole book very interesting and appreciate the author sharing her personal stories.

abbutterflie's review against another edition

2.0
Okay. Given the blurb, I think I had hoped for something more illuminating and with more insight into the bigger picture of poverty and how you come through it. This was more the author's life story with a couple of stats and not very sophisticated commentary thrown in. I feel churlish criticising as it is her life story and would have been a tough book to write. It also seems less about poverty, and more about growing up in an unstable and dysfunctional household with a mother who was ill equipped to be a parent. And there's a lot of intersectionality with poverty, but was poverty the cause or a symptom.
ayeesharbrts's profile picture

ayeesharbrts's review against another edition

4.5
dark emotional informative reflective sad fast-paced
amyreadings25's profile picture

amyreadings25's review against another edition

4.5
challenging informative reflective medium-paced
ellenkateboyle's profile picture

ellenkateboyle's review against another edition

4.0
challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
fauxlex's profile picture

fauxlex's review against another edition

4.25
emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
theardentone's profile picture

theardentone's review against another edition

3.0
It focussed a little too much on Hudson's feelings about her past than the actual events of the past, in my opinion.
phillysaurus's profile picture

phillysaurus's review

4.5
dark inspiring relaxing sad medium-paced
Brave and personal account of growing up in poverty in the UK. Should be a difficult read, but it's written with such honesty and sensitivity - never flinching, never making excuses, but explaining the situation within. Very good.