And the names still ring in my head every day: chav, scav, lowlife, NED, underclass, lowborn. I lived more of that life, my first twenty years, than I’ve lived of this infinitely cushier one since. I escaped benefits queues and means assessments and shitty zero-hour contracts. I escaped casual, grim violence fuelled by frustration and Special Brew. I escaped Jeremy Kyle in a shiny suit telling me my sort was scum. I escaped sink estates, burnt-out houses and ice-cream vans selling drugs at the school gates. I escaped the higher rate of domestic abuse. I probably escaped the early mortality rates and preventable diseases – we’ll see. I escaped drinking or drugging myself into oblivion because. I escaped threadbare clothes and too-tight shoes. I escaped bad food because that’s all you can afford. Shall we start with a happy ending? I made it. To learn more about Kerry, please see Project Twist-It. Above: Kerry Hudson (left) with Amanda Button of ATD Fourth World and Abigail Scott Paul at the 2019 York Festival of Ideas.īelow, the award-winning Kerry Hudson shares the introduction to her memoir, “Lowborn: Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns”.
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