Let Me Take You by the Hand: True Tales from London's Streets

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In 1861, the great journalist and social advocate Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor, an oral history of those living and working on the streets of Victorian London. Nothing on this scale had been attempted before. On the surface, the streets of London in 1861 and in 2019 are entirely different places. In 2000, Sir Peter Hall, the doyen of urbanism, led a multi-disciplinary team of researchers to investigate the relationships between economic competitiveness and social cohesion. This was done through a combination of statistical analysis and evidence from over one hundred interviews with Londoners in their different roles, in their different neighbourhoods. While many have patchwork jobs – sometimes two different jobs to make a bit extra to supplement a day job that doesn’t pay enough to get by – they all value the freedom of being out-of-doors and interacting with the public. Resilience and stoicism, particularly with regard to the weather, are key notes, yet there’s also a powerful sense of being part of some wider community, of being alive among the grand sweep of people. Let Me Take You By The Hand is an x-ray of life on the streets today: the stories in their own words of those who work and live in our capital. Read more…

Guardian review 12 June 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/12/let-me-take-you-by-the-hand-by-jennifer-kavanagh-review-true-tales-from-londons-streets But now we no longer see old men and old ladies with their world in bags they carry but young boys forced out of their lodgings and thrown onto the streets by uncaring landlords and a Westminster parliament that behaves as if they aren’t really there I see the same images on the streets of Belfast as I walk in the streets of Belfast but nowadays in the year 2020 the old soldiers have long since died by now on the streets in the damp and cold Irish winters Interview with the Guardian, 9 June 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2021/jun/09/i-just-want-what-everyone-else-has-what-homeless-people-told-jennifer-kavanagh-about-their-lives Kavanagh’s writing too reflects a city in transition, albeit one where people are perhaps now more habituated to change. It is less policy-focused, despite finding space to advocate for micro-initiatives, such as Groundswell, which uses those with experience of homelessness to design and deliver services. Her aim is more personal: to use these stories to show you something to “ make you change your mind” and invite you into a world you most probably rush past, to ask you to take a moment and to consider the common humanity you share with all those trying to make a living on the streets of London.Unless we start caring and act on these great injustices the spectre of evil will once more rise up as it did in the 1930s Guardian review, 12 June 2021: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jun/12/let-me-take-you-by-the-hand-by-jennifer-kavanagh-review-true-tales-from-londons-streets What made Mayhew’s work so viscerally thrilling was the way he let his subjects tell their stories in their own words. Rather than cutting and pasting a few choice phrases to give colour and punch to his research and statistics, he simply let them say their piece, complete with pauses, stumbles, repetitions and non sequiturs. The effect was vivid and immediate and has since become the standard way that oral historians present their work. Those two great modern 20 th-century masters of the art, Studs Terkel and Tony Parker, showed what extraordinary things could happen when you got out of the way and let drowned-out voices speak up. What shines through this wonderfully engaging book is the author’s genuine assumption that every life matters and, if we care to listen, has important things to tell us about our own. Thyrocyte from Bangkok, ThailandThis song reminds all of us that there always be some other people who are suffering more than we are. Somehow, these people can go on their lives. So, there is no use to let ourselves down. No use to waste our time moaning. We have to get up and fight for our goals to achieve whatsoever we want.

Sonny Rollins also helped Eric record his first CD for King Records (Japan) titled "God Son", with the great Al Foster on drums, Rufus Reid on bass and pianist Mark Soskin from Sonny’s band.In 1861, the great journalist and social advocate Henry Mayhew published London Labour and the London Poor, an oral history of those living and working on the streets of Victorian London. Nothing on this scale had been attempted before.