Darren McGarvey - Poverty Safari

Copyright 2017 by Darren McGarvey

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018.

First US Edition 2020

First published in 2017 by Luath Press Limited, Edinburgh. This edition is published under license from Pan Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers International Limited.

Arcade Publishing books may be purchased in bulk at special discounts for sales promotion, corporate gifts, fund-raising, or educational purposes. Special editions can also be created to specifications. For details, contact the Special Sales Department, Arcade Publishing, 307 West 36th Street, 11th Floor, New York, NY 10018 or .

Arcade Publishing is a registered trademark of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., a Delaware corporation.

Visit our website at www.arcadepub.com.

Visit the authors site at darrenmcgarvey.com.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on file.

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020940007

Cover design courtesy of Picador/Pan Macmillan

Cover photo: Red Road Flats, Glasgow Tom Marley/www.tommarleyphotography.com

ISBN: 978-1-951627-08-9

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-951627-28-7

Printed in the United States of America

Praise for Poverty Safari

Part memoir, part polemic, this is a savage, wise and witty tour-de-force. An unflinching account of the realities of systemic poverty, Poverty Safari lays down challenges to both the left and right. It is hard to think of a more timely, powerful or necessary book.

J. K. R OWLING

Nothing less than an intellectual and spiritual rehab manual for the progressive left.

I RVINE W ELSH

George Orwell would have loved this book. It echoes Down and Out in Paris and London and The Road to Wigan Pier . It is heartrending in its life story and its account of family breakdown and poverty. But by the end there is not a scintilla of self-pity and a huge amount of optimism. It made me see the country and its social condition in a new light.

A NDREW A DONIS, CHAIR OF JUDGES , O RWELL P RIZE 2018

One of the best accounts of working-class life I have read. McGarvey is a rarity: a working-class writer who has fought to make the middle-class world hear what he has to say.

N ICK C OHEN , G UARDIAN

Based on the environment in which he was raised, he explores the anger, resentment, and the sense of exclusion of the underclass, trying to explain what led voters to back Brexit and right-wing nationalism and populism and offering what he calls an emotional reality about deprivation that is rarely captured by statistics and demands an emotional literacy to be properly understood.

K IMIKO DE F REYTAS -T AMURA , N EW Y ORK T IMES

His book is searing, and some of his recollections are unbearable. But the real surprise is that the misery memoir is a disguise for a much more complex book. In the book he calls it a Trojan horse to draw the reader in, because what he really wants to say is that the cycle of abuse and addiction can be broken. He is living proof of that.

S TEPHEN M OSS , G UARDIAN , I NTERVIEW

If Scotlands underclass could speak in a single, articulate, authentic voice to communicate to the rest of us what its like to be poor, isolated, brutalized, and lost, it would sound very much like this.

D AIL Y M AIL

A painfully honest autobiographical study of deprivation and how society should deal with it [McGarvey] seems to offer an antidote to populist anger that transcends left and right His urgently written, articulate, and emotional book is a bracing contribution to the debate about how to fix our broken politics.

F INANCIAL T IMES

What distinguishes Poverty Safari from a straight description of a working-class life is his searing examination of the narratives that surround povertyand the way in which no individual, least of all him, can neatly be fitted into them.

A LEX C LARK , O RWELL P RIZE 2018 JUDGE

Another cry of anger from a working class that feels the pain of a rotten, failing system. Its value lies in the strength it will add to the movement for change.

K EN L OACH

A blistering analysis of the issues facing the voiceless and the social mechanisms that hobble progress, all wrapped up in an unputdownable memoir.

D ENISE M INA , J OHN C REASEY D AGGER A WARD WINNING AUTHOR

Poverty Safari is an important and powerful book.

N ICOLA S TURGEON, LEADER OF THE S COTTISH N ATIONAL P ARTY AND F IRST M INISTER OF S COTLAND

This book is dedicated to my beautiful and fragile siblings, Sarah Louise, Paul, Lauren and Stephen. Encoded in this book is everything Ive learned about life in 33 years. Im sorry for the times I wasnt around and for any time youve felt let down by me or anybody else. I love you and look forward to the day we can sit around a table again as a family.

PS: Dont do drugs

Liason Co-ordinator

efturryd geenuz iz speel

iboot whut wuz right

nwhut wuz rang

boot this nthat

nthi nix thing

a sayzti thi bloke

nwhut izzit yi caw

yir joab jimmy

am a liason co-ordinator

hi sayz oh good ah sayz

a liason co-ordinator

jist whut this erria needs

whut way aw thi unimploymint

inaw thi bevvyin

nthi boayz runnin amock

nthi hoossyz fawnty bits

nthi wummin n tranquilisers

it last thiv sent uz

a liason co-ordinator

sumdy wia digree

in fuck knows whut

getn peyd fur no known

whut thi fuck ti day way it

Tom Leonard

Contents

Acknowledgements

If not for the kindness, patience and good faith of others, not least the support and encouragement of my partner, Rebecca, this book would have been impossible to complete. The final push required me to take a couple of weeks away from home, leaving her with much to deal with at a time of considerable upheaval in our lives. Thankfully we have a lot of support, particularly from Linda and Edward Wallace, her loving parents, as well as the rest of her family, who are a source of constant support. I dont know what we would do without you. Thank you for your kindness and your example. I also thank Auntie Rosie and my sister Sarah Louise, who are the glue that holds our family together; and Uncle Thomas, for always being there with the heavy lifting. Thank you all for teaching me how to be useful, as well as opinionated. Your support never goes unnoticed.

To my close friends, who I dont see as often as I would likeI always write with you in mind. Once we clear the wreckage of our 20s, well hopefully find new ways to be with each other without Lady Carnage looking over our shoulder.

Acknowledgement must go to David Burnett aka Big Div, the first person to recognise and nurture my talents when I was a wayward young person; Hip Hop has given me the opportunity to live an extraordinary life and much of what I have achieved can be traced back to those early days in Ferguslie Park. Thanks also to Sace Lockhart and David Defy Roberts, for being the big brothers I never had and for supporting me throughout my life.

Special thanks to Gavin at Luath Press for trusting my vision and for being intuitive to my needs as a budding (I want to say young) author. Also to Jennie Renton for her input towards the end of the editorial process (I wince at the thought of what I was prepared to release prior to her involvement), and to Hilary Bell, who was a great support at the outset when I had no clue what I was doing.