Darren McGarvey - The Social Distance Between Us

Darren McGarvey grew up in Pollok, Glasgow. He is a writer, hip-hop artist, broadcaster and campaigner. His bestselling and acclaimed first book Poverty Safari was awarded the Orwell Prize for political writing in 2018.

When your names on the cover, its easy to delude yourself that the achievement of finishing a book is yours alone. The reality is that without some form of help and support almost every day for the three-and-a-half years it took me to finish this, it may never have materialised. This work is the culmination of a mammoth team effort. The friends who picked up the slack when I was otherwise unavailable. The various editors who came on board at the different points to help me whittle down the first unwieldy manuscript I exhaustedly submitted in 2021. My colleagues at Tern Television with whom I collaborated on the documentary film sequences which are expanded upon in this book. And the courageous and generously forthcoming contributors whose stories we did our best to capture, some of which are also featured in this volume.

I must first thank my partner Rebecca and my two children Daniel and Lily for putting up with my physical and emotional absences at points due to writing or filming commitments. If its any consolation, Im just as difficult at work as I am at home. Thanks must also go to Rebeccas parents, Linda and Edward, for all that they have done and continue to do for us one day I will hand-pick and personally deliver the flowers! My sister Sarah, whos always stepped in at short notice to bail me out of childcare conundrums, public transport issues, and the occasional mental health breakdown I love you and look forward to the day I get to read your first book! Jennifer wonderful and mysterious creature thank you for becoming our nanny during those tough lockdown months. I can say hand on heart if not for the time and headspace your informal childcare services provided us, neither Becci nor I could have made the progress we did during the pandemic. Its also fairly obvious that your wonderful way with the kids has had a profoundly positive impact, especially wee Lily. You put in quite a shift, and I am eternally grateful to you.

Now for some brief acknowledgements less close to home but no less important. Thanks to my agent, Vivienne Clore, for your support. Thanks to Andrew Goodfellow at Ebury for your understanding, encouragement, empathy and patience. There were points I felt like throwing in the towel and almost did. I only wish I had asked for help sooner, but you live and you learn. Paul Murphy, Suzanne Connelly and Liz Marvin, your keen editorial gaze drove me positively insane at points but almost every suggestion you made was spot on and taught me something about myself and my writing. Id also like to thank my old publisher Gavin MacDougall at Luath Press for not only releasing me from my contract in 2018 so that I could explore this new opportunity with Penguin Random House, but also for giving me his full blessing I owe you so much for taking a chance on me back in the day. To Harry, Ceara, Emma, Cara, Adam and the whole team at Tern, our work together helped me remain close to the action, proximity from which this book has benefited immeasurably. Thank you for allowing me to draw from our experiences on-the-ground, and for being so supportive when things were difficult. Im not sure if there are such things as friends in this industry, but you guys have certainly come closest to meeting the criteria. Im grateful for the work you do and for the sensitivity, respect and care you bring to our brave, often vulnerable, contributors. Thanks also to BBC Scotland for your foresight in commissioning our work, and for trusting us to put on screen what we all knew in our hearts was as close to the truth as television can get.

I would like to pay tribute to all the journalists, researchers, academics, broadcasters and commentators whose work I have drawn from as second-hand research in this book. Whether statistical, reportage, testimonial or investigative in nature, the sheer depth and scope of information freely available and easy to locate (and read) was immensely helpful. I couldnt do what you guys do and therefore my work absolutely depends on yours thank you for painstaking work, attention to detail and most of all for your integrity. When people wrongly refer to me as a journalist or an intellectual, I always feel obligated to correct them out of deep respect for your craft and expertise. I have endeavoured to acknowledge every instance where I have drawn from the work of other writers, however, the process of writing this book was chaotic throughout and I am not academically trained. If anyone should find any element of their work in this book which is not attributed to them due to oversight on my part there are about seven different versions of this book and twice as many drafts as well as multiple drafts of many chapters please do not hesitate to contact me directly to resolve any concern you may have.

I would also like to thank the various organisations with which I have consulted or worked with over the years, who have deepened my understanding of various issues covered here. Better Than Zero, Scottish Womens Aid and Scotlands Violence Reduction Unit in particular, as well as the various youth groups and community organisations Ive encountered over the years, offer a depth of knowledge in their various fields which has been of immense help, particularly when touching subjects which must be treated with sensitivity and care.

Thanks must also go to my followers and supporters online and in the real world. Its nice to know some people actually like and appreciate you. I tend to tune out the positive comments and focus on the negative remarks, but one day maybe I will learn to internalise the many kind and compassionate things you have said or written to me over the years. My Twitter followers are like unpaid researchers, helping me source information quickly, or challenging my assumptions in ways that push me harder, so thanks for being there and for engaging with me I really do value our interactions and appreciate your time. Hopefully Ill see you in the real world soon.

Now with that said, I would like to take some time to acknowledge who I consider to be my greatest creative collaborator and the person, besides me obviously, most responsible for this book taking the shape it has Stephen Bennett, director of Darren McGarveys Scotland and Class Wars. Our work together began in the winter of 2018 after an exciting but intense and exhausting year. I had never worked on a documentary film before except as a contributor and despite perhaps giving the outward appearance of confidence, I was very nervous. While Id forgive you for assuming the jitters were caused merely by vanity one does become slightly preoccupied with oneself from time to time my real fear was that the subjects of our film, who had kindly agreed to share their stories with us, might come to regret placing their trust in us.

My main motivation for agreeing to co-write and present the first series was to put right something I felt films about poverty always got wrong: the story is never the chaos of the lives of the misfortunate or downtrodden its the systems failing them which we must always come back to. Stephen, you shared this vision from day one. You gave me my place, and I will never forget that. It did wonders for my intermittent self-esteem to be treated as a professional whose insights and opinions were valued, rather than a subject from which narrative is simply extracted for entertainment. Our work together really demonstrated for me the power of people from different social classes coming together around common goals, working on an equal footing, where the give and take, while not always easy, becomes part of the creative process rather than an impediment to it.