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A review by annw
Anti-Social: The Secret Diary of an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer by Nick Pettigrew
4.0
This could have been a really dark memoir, showcasing as it does the people who live life on the sidelines - either in poverty or dancing close to it's borders; drug sellers, drug users, alcoholics, and a good dose of mental health issues thrown into the mix.
But Nick, an ASB officer (ASB stand for anti-social behaviour) has a great sense of humour and injects that into his diary regularly. I would guess that to do this job for any length of time (he did it for 10 years) you'd need a good sense of humour, as well as an abundance of empathy, compassion and common sense, and the ability to hold your temper at times when you're faced with tenants (or customers, or clients, whatever's the current buzzword the council has decided on) who refuse to help themselves even when a helping hand is offered.
There are plenty of people in this book that you'll help feel sorry for - they haven't been dealt a good hand by life, facing challenges that many of us have never had to consider let alone deal with. And there's a good sprinking of nasty. lazy and feckless characters - although even then, many of them have a backstory that rarely failes to elicit a modicum of sympathy for their plight.
At times amusing; at other times an uncomfortable read that will have you questioning why the systems in place don't help (and often hinder), and what we can do as a society and as individuals to "level the playing field" which is what Prime Minister Johnson said he wants to do.
But Nick, an ASB officer (ASB stand for anti-social behaviour) has a great sense of humour and injects that into his diary regularly. I would guess that to do this job for any length of time (he did it for 10 years) you'd need a good sense of humour, as well as an abundance of empathy, compassion and common sense, and the ability to hold your temper at times when you're faced with tenants (or customers, or clients, whatever's the current buzzword the council has decided on) who refuse to help themselves even when a helping hand is offered.
There are plenty of people in this book that you'll help feel sorry for - they haven't been dealt a good hand by life, facing challenges that many of us have never had to consider let alone deal with. And there's a good sprinking of nasty. lazy and feckless characters - although even then, many of them have a backstory that rarely failes to elicit a modicum of sympathy for their plight.
At times amusing; at other times an uncomfortable read that will have you questioning why the systems in place don't help (and often hinder), and what we can do as a society and as individuals to "level the playing field" which is what Prime Minister Johnson said he wants to do.