The Road to Wigan Pier Revisited

You think that the recession isn't biting? Look again. You think that the riots in August 2011 were unpredicted? Think again.

75 years after George Orwell's classic expose on life in the North, Stephen Armstrong returns to find that many things have changed, but not always for the better. Here he finds how young girls go missing because of the intransigence of the benefits systems, how fragile hope can be in the face of poverty and why the government stands in the way of a community helping itself. In his journey, taking in Bradford, Sheffield, Liverpool and Wigan, Armstrong reveals a society at the end of its tether, abandoned by all those who speak in its name.

A journalist and broadcaster, Stephen Armstrong writes for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, GQ, Esquire and the New Statesman amongst others. He contributes documentaries and columns to Radio 4 and is currently working with al-jazeera on a film based around his recent book War Plc - the rise of the new corporate mercenary, which sold out its first print run in 10 days. His first book, The White Island, was published in 2005.

You think that the recession isn't biting? Look again. You think that the riots in August 2011 were unpredicted? Think again. 75 years after George Orwell's classic expose on life in the North, Stephen Armstrong returns to find that many things have changed, but not always for the better. Here he finds how young girls go missing because of the intransigence of the benefits systems, how fragile hope can be in the face of poverty and why the government stands in the way of a community helping itself. In his journey, taking in Bradford, Sheffield, Liverpool and Wigan, Armstrong reveals a society at the end of its tether, abandoned by all those who speak in its name.

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