annethology
  • Home
    • About Annethology
    • About me >
      • A little more about me
    • About my books
    • Author talks
    • Contact me
    • Forthcoming events
    • World Mental Health Day
    • Privacy
    • Sign up for my newsletter
  • First two novels
    • Sugar and Snails >
      • Acknowledgements
      • Blog tour, Q&A's and feature articles >
        • Birthday blog tour
        • S&S on tour 2022
      • Early endorsements
      • Events >
        • Launch photos
        • Launch party videos
      • in pictures
      • Media
      • If you've read the book
      • Polari
      • Reading group questions
      • Reviews
      • In the media
    • Underneath >
      • Endorsements and reviews
      • Launch party and events
      • Pictures
      • Questions for book groups
      • The stories underneath the novel
  • Matilda Windsor series
    • The accidental series
    • Matilda Windsor >
      • What readers say
      • For book groups
      • Interviews, articles and features
      • Matty on the move
      • Who were you in 1990?
      • Asylum lit
      • Matilda Windsor media
    • Stolen Summers >
      • Stolen Summers reviews
    • Lyrics for the Loved Ones
  • Short stories
    • Somebody’s Daughter
    • Becoming Someone (anthology) >
      • Becoming Someone (video readings)
      • Becoming Someone reviews
      • Becoming Someone online book chat
    • Print and downloads
    • Read it online
    • Quick reads
  • Free ebook
  • Annecdotal
    • Annecdotal blog
    • Annecdotal Press
    • Articles >
      • Print journalism
      • Where psychology meets fiction
    • Fictional therapists
    • Reading and reviews >
      • Reviews A to H
      • Reviews I to M
      • Reviews N to Z
      • Nonfiction
      • Themed quotes
      • Reading around the world
  • Shop
    • Inspired Quill (my publisher)
    • Bookshop.org (affiliate link)
    • Amazon UK
    • Amazon US
    • books2read
  • Main site

Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Uncovering injustice: The Windrush Betrayal & Act of Grace

21/9/2020

4 Comments

 
These two recent reads – the first non-fiction rooted in the UK, the second a novel visiting Australia, the USA and Iraq – involving characters and authors delving into recent and historical government injustice against its colonised peoples. Read, and use your vote accordingly – but of course you already do!

Picture
Picture


The Windrush Betrayal by Amelia Gentleman

In November 2017, the Guardian newspaper published a story about a Jamaican-born British woman, Paulette Wilson, who had been misclassified as an illegal immigrant and threatened with deportation. As the journalist Amelia Gentleman delved into her devastating story, and those of others who had faced similar difficulties despite having arrived in the UK legally and lived here for decades, a picture emerged of widespread betrayal as a direct consequence of the government’s explicit policy – introduced by former Prime Minister Theresa May when she was Home Secretary under David Cameron – of creating a hostile environment for immigrants. In sharp contrast to official indifference, this important book contextualises and humanises the tragic statistics, and – in describing her quest to understand and uncover the national scandal – demonstrates the doggedness and empathy of investigative journalism at its very best.
 
Having followed the excellent Guardian articles, and being a reluctant non-fiction reader, I hesitated to fork out for the hardback. But independent journalism needs our support and, despite the rage-inducing subject matter, it’s so well written (personal, but without making it about the author, as I’ve sometimes found in journalist-penned books) it made for worthwhile garden reading during this recent week of September summer weather. And with the issue creeping into my very contemporary WIP – although I’ll have to doctor the dates slightly – it was a necessary read.
 
The cruelties are reminiscent of 1930s Germany: people lost their jobs (employers understandably reluctant to risk the £20,000 fine for employing an illegal immigrant); their homes (as landlords faced similar penalties); access to state benefits they had paid for via national insurance contributions. Some had their bank accounts frozen; some were denied healthcare; some, like Paulette, were whisked off to detention centres with little warning and forced to swap their clothes for prison-style uniform.
 
Victims faced further hurdles when attempting to correct what seemed to be an administrative error. A decade of austerity left government departments stripped to the minimum, charities underfunded and no access to legal aid for immigration cases. Anyone who surmounted the hurdles to speak to a real person got the typical call-centre script. The onus was placed on the individual to prove their status, even when accessing relevant data – such as tax records – would be so much simpler for the bureaucrats. Could you produce three pieces of evidence for each year you’ve lived in the country you call home?
 
The Kafkaesque nightmare is revealed in the crazy rationalisations in a letter sent to one man outlining why his case had been refused (p57):
 
you have been working within the United Kingdom illegally … You have therefore shown that you are resourceful … making an independent life for yourself in a foreign country. The skills and experience you have gained … should stand you in good stead for obtaining gainful employment and your return to Jamaica.
 
Some were so demoralised by the bullying, and fearing the humiliation of forced repatriation, they returned voluntarily to countries where they had no family, friends or prospect of work. Meanwhile, the landing cards that proved they had entered the country legally as children, stored by the Home Office for decades, were destroyed.
 
It’s both encouraging and depressing that the publicity generated by Amelia Gentleman’s investigations led to a government U-turn: with the standard oleaginous apologies, the resignation of the minister responsible (rehabilitated to another senior post in the next reshuffle) and the relevant documents being couriered to people’s doors. A compensation fund was promised, albeit with a cap of £500 for legal bills (around a fifth of the minimum needed) and a mere £1000 payment for those coerced into returning to unfamiliar lands (p287). At the time of writing – the book was published by Guardian Faber in June 2019 – many affected were still awaiting both compensation and individual apology.
 
Is any compensation sufficient for years wasted fighting for your basic rights? Some have died in the process – or soon afterwards, including Paulette Wilson earlier this summer – or been worn down by the stress. Given that most of those betrayed are around my age, I sometimes bristled at the author’s occasional reference to them as elderly. But the fact is that, like my grandparents’ generation, harsh circumstances make sixty-something old.
 
With Brexit and the continuing anti-immigration fervour – incidentally, the hostile environment policies failed in their objective to save taxpayers’ money (p286) – something similar could easily happen again. Now rebranded as the compliance policy, the underlying attitude to undocumented residents has not changed. First they came for the …


Act of Grace by Anna Krien

Toohey might have had anger management issues for some time, but they don’t reach boiling point until he returns to Australia from his third tour of duty in Iraq. A fatal error leaves him emotionally jittery and with physical repercussions in the form of minute pieces of shrapnel lodged in his neck.
 
Nasim has lost both parents to the barbarity of Saddam Hussein, and suffered horrifically herself, but she manages to transform Toohey’s mistake into an opportunity, albeit at significant cost.
 
Meanwhile, Toohey’s son, Gerry, grows up anxious and somewhat aloof from his peers, nurturing a dream of visiting cowboy country in Western USA. Of course, it’s not as he expected but, learning about the disadvantage experienced by Native Americans, his travels catalyse his personal growth.
 
With her father disabled by early-onset dementia, Robbie is more interested in the injustices meted out to Australia’s indigenous peoples. Leading an art project among the Anangu of Uluru proves a challenge, and perhaps the chance for reconciliation with the hidden history of her own heritage.
 
With fine writing, important topics and apparently meticulous research, I loved this novel until about halfway through. While these praise-worthy elements never faltered, the sheer quantity of material meant my enthusiasm waned. Although the four threads interconnect, and at just over 300 pages it isn’t overly long, I think it would have worked better as two or even three separate novels. Such a shame as these are fascinating stories, especially the parts set in Australia and Iraq. Thanks to publishers Serpent’s Tail for my review copy.

Picture

I’m also keen to address issues of social justice in my fiction, although I haven’t yet managed to zoom in on them as successfully as Anna Krien. But my WIP – a.k.a. pandemic displacement project (click or tap the image for more) – draws on my own country’s shameful treatment of its colonies.


Also tangentially related to this novel, my short story, “Shall I show you what it’s like out there?” about a young man returning from Iraq – set in a hospital A&E department long before the pandemic – has recently been published by Blue Lake Review. Shall I read you the opening?

Picture
The mouse infestation Toohey confronts on a chicken farm in Act of Grace, seems a good jumping off point for my response to this week’s flash fiction challenge. But my thoughts went to the various development projects I was privileged to visit decades ago in India, including an ashram in rural Gujarat supporting indigenous tribal people or Adivasi. Unfortunately, my BOTS is more light-hearted and Euro-centred so doesn’t do justice to that work.
Bombay mix and chai
 
I felt honoured, in the rural areas, to be invited into people’s homes, conversing through smiles and gesture. But I needed to keep my wits about me: the poorer people were, the more generous their hospitality, and I didn’t want them going hungry because a white woman had come to visit. A simple shack, the bathroom a field, the kitchen a pot on an outdoor fire, yet their few possessions gleamed. I didn’t worry about hygiene until, hearing a xylophone tinkling, I saw mice scurrying along the shelf stacked with aluminium plates and tumblers, and my hosts just laughed.
 
Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
4 Comments
Charli Mills
23/9/2020 07:59:05 pm

I'm reeling from the story uncovered by Amelia Gentleman because I had no idea! Sometimes, I feel our English root gnarl in our shared political upheavals that dehumanize our nations. Yes, this is why we must support journalism, especially the investigative journalism that can take years to piece the story and its atrocities together. My heart aches for the American Dreamers promised citizenship; for the soldiers who served in our military and then were deported because of bureaucratic holdups with their papers; for the children weeping at night for mothers because their parents dared cross American borders for a better life. If only they had known a monster was on the rise! I' taking a deep breath and recommitting my support to literary art that bravely tells the stories that we need to hear. Vote, yes, serve others, too. Spread compassion.

So, I just bought Act of Grace and think it will be a good read for my MFA studies. Thanks for bringing it to my attention!

Your flash reminds me of my daughter's trip to India as a science journalism student. In a village, she was excited to find zeolites in the road (a specific mineral that spreads like a fan). Without speaking English, the women in the village understood her interest in the roads, and although they laughed, they also compelled her to follow and took her to an outcropping. That was a wonderful sharing that didn't take food or deal with mice! And I have one of the zeolites.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
24/9/2020 10:22:42 am

Yes, we're very skilled at glossing over British-style racism. I was at a conference yesterday – one of the benefits of the pandemic as I don't think I'd have travelled to London for it – under Windrush issue. There were some very articulate speakers from whom I learned more about the continuing injustice: that the application procedure for the compensation scheme is run by the Home Office, rather than an independent body, and seems to include the same obstacles against people getting what is owed them (it's the same with our benefits system – more effort is expended on ensuring people don't cheat the system than ensuring people get what they are entitled to, yet the government is more than willing to waste money on corporations that don't deliver what they are contracted to do); that nothing has been put in place to ensure that people in similar circumstances, but not from Caribbean countries, would suffer the same way. These issues were flagged in the book but there wasn't a lot of detail.

I'm very excited – and I assume you will be too – that I'm addressing this in my WIP. With Matilda Windsor! I am concerned about honouring it sufficiently, however: although it's integral to the plot, those directly affected are secondary or even tertiary characters, but I don't feel qualified to address it any other way.

I'm reading another novel right now that might be useful for your MFA reading too: it includes a scene with combat-related PTSD – the running TOWARDS rather than AWAY that you highlighted – and I'd be interested to know whether you find it authentic. I'll be sure to flag you when I write my review.

I can just imagine your daughter with the rural women – presumably they'd be baffled by her interest but keen to help. I had many non-food and non-mouse interactions which I still cherish almost 40 years on. Lovely that you have one of those zeolites.

Reply
Norah Colvin
6/10/2020 11:42:37 am

Both books sound like very in-depth but important reads, Anne. The facts of The Windrush Betrayal are appalling, and how great it is that there are journalists who are prepared to do the investigation and resport on what they find. It is often nothing of which any of us can feel pride. Why don't the people pushing paper and pens realise that they themselves are people, just as the 'numbers' they are dealing with are people too. A little empathy and shared humanity would go a long way.
Your mouse story reminds me a little of my crunch story. I'm not sure if it's better to know or to remain ignorant at times.

Reply
Anne Goodwin
7/10/2020 04:04:08 pm

When I went to the Windrush conference, I learnt about all the work the lawyers and activists were doing before this story hit the headlines, but I'd never have known about it without the work of Amelia Gentleman. I think systems are often set up in order that those responsible DON'T perceive the service recipients as people, otherwise how could they please the shareholders / cut taxes to get re-elected AND sleep at night!

Your point about the similarities between our FFs, raises the question – which is worse? It's probably irrational, but I think I mind the mice more than the insect in the cup.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Free ebook: click the image to claim yours.
    Picture
    Available now
    Picture
    The poignant prequel to Matilda Windsor Is Coming Home
    Picture
    Find a review
    Picture
    Fictional therapists
    Picture
    Picture
    About Anne Goodwin
    Picture
    My published books
    entertaining fiction about identity, mental health and social justice
    Picture
    My third novel, published May 2021
    Picture
    My debut novel shortlisted for the 2016 Polari First Book Prize
    Picture
    Picture
    My second novel published May 2017.
    Picture
    Short stories on the theme of identity published 2018
    Anne Goodwin's books on Goodreads
    Sugar and Snails Sugar and Snails
    reviews: 32
    ratings: 52 (avg rating 4.21)

    Underneath Underneath
    reviews: 24
    ratings: 60 (avg rating 3.17)

    Becoming Someone Becoming Someone
    reviews: 8
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.56)

    GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4 GUD: Greatest Uncommon Denominator, Issue 4
    reviews: 4
    ratings: 9 (avg rating 4.44)

    The Best of Fiction on the Web The Best of Fiction on the Web
    reviews: 3
    ratings: 3 (avg rating 4.67)

    2022 Reading Challenge

    2022 Reading Challenge
    Anne has read 2 books toward their goal of 100 books.
    hide
    2 of 100 (2%)
    view books
    Picture
    Annecdotal is where real life brushes up against the fictional.  
    Picture
    Annecdotist is the blogging persona of Anne Goodwin: 
    reader, writer,

    slug-slayer, tramper of moors, 
    recovering psychologist, 
    struggling soprano, 
    author of three fiction books.

    LATEST POSTS HERE
    I don't post to a schedule, but average  around ten reviews a month (see here for an alphabetical list), 
    some linked to a weekly flash fiction, plus posts on my WIPs and published books.  

    Your comments are welcome any time any where.

    Get new posts direct to your inbox ...

    Enter your email address:

    or click here …

    RSS Feed


    Picture

    Tweets by @Annecdotist
    Picture
    New short story, “My Dirty Weekend”
    Picture
    Let’s keep in touch – subscribe to my newsletter
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    Popular posts

    • Compassion: something we all need
    • Do spoilers spoil?
    • How to create a convincing fictional therapist
    • Instructions for a novel
    • Looking at difference, embracing diversity
    • Never let me go: the dilemma of lending books
    • On loving, hating and writers’ block
      On Pop, Pirates and Plagiarism
    • READIN' for HER reviews
    • Relishing the cuts
    • The fast first draft
    • The tragedy of obedience
    • Writers and therapy: a love-hate relationship?

    Categories/Tags

    All
    Animals
    Annecdotist Hosts
    Annecdotist On Tour
    Articles
    Attachment Theory
    Author Interviews
    Becoming Someone
    Being A Writer
    Blogging
    Bodies
    Body
    Bookbirthday
    Books For Writers
    Bookshops
    CB Book Group
    Character
    Childhood
    Christmas
    Classics
    Climate Crisis
    Coming Of Age
    Counsellors Cafe
    Creative Writing Industry
    Creativity
    Cumbria
    Debut Novels
    Disability
    Editing
    Emotion
    Ethics
    Ethis
    Family
    Feedback And Critiques
    Fictional Psychologists & Therapists
    Food
    Friendship
    Futuristic
    Gender
    Genre
    Getting Published
    Giveaways
    Good Enough
    Grammar
    Gratitude
    Group/organisational Dynamics
    Hero’s Journey
    History
    Humour
    Identity
    Illness
    Independent Presses
    Institutions
    International Commemorative Day
    Jane Eyre
    Kidney Disease
    Language
    LGBTQ
    Libraries
    Live Events
    Lyrics For The Loved Ones
    Marketing
    Matilda Windsor
    Memoir
    Memory
    Mental Health
    Microfiction
    Motivation
    Music
    MW Prequel
    Names
    Narrative Voice
    Nature / Gardening
    Networking
    Newcastle
    Nonfiction
    Nottingham
    Novels
    Pandemic
    Peak District
    Perfect Match
    Poetry
    Point Of View
    Politics
    Politics Current Affairs
    Presentation
    Privacy
    Prizes
    Psychoanalytic Theory
    Psychology
    Psycholoists Write
    Psychotherapy
    Race
    Racism
    Rants
    Reading
    Real Vs Imaginary
    Religion
    Repetitive Strain Injury
    Research
    Reviewing
    Romance
    Satire
    Second Novels
    Settings
    Sex
    Shakespeare
    Short Stories General
    Short Stories My Published
    Short Stories Others'
    Siblings
    Snowflake
    Somebody's Daughter
    Stolen Summers
    Storytelling
    Structure
    Sugar And Snails
    Technology
    The
    The Guestlist
    Therapy
    TikTok
    TNTB
    Toiletday
    Tourism
    Toxic Positivity
    Transfiction
    Translation
    Trauma
    Unconscious
    Unconscious, The
    Underneath
    Voice Recognition Software
    War
    WaSBihC
    Weather
    Work
    Writing Process
    Writing Technique

    Archives

    October 2024
    September 2024
    August 2024
    March 2024
    January 2024
    December 2023
    November 2023
    October 2023
    September 2023
    August 2023
    July 2023
    June 2023
    May 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013

    Picture
    BLOGGING COMMUNITIES
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
Photos from havens.michael34, romana klee, mrsdkrebs, Kyle Taylor, Dream It. Do It., adam & lucy, dluders, Joybot, Hammer51012, jorgempf, Sherif Salama, eyspahn, raniel diaz, E. E. Piphanies, scaredofbabies, Nomadic Lass, paulternate, Tony Fischer Photography, archer10 (Dennis), slightly everything, impbox, jonwick04, country_boy_shane, dok1, Out.of.Focus, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service - Midwest Region, Elvert Barnes, guillenperez, Richard Perry, jamesnaruke, Juan Carlos Arniz Sanz, El Tuerto, kona99, maveric2003, !anaughty!, Patrick Denker, David Davies, hamilcar_south, idleformat, Dave Goodman, Sharon Mollerus, photosteve101, La Citta Vita, A Girl With Tea, striatic, carlosfpardo, Damork, Elvert Barnes, UNE Photos, jurvetson, quinn.anya, BChristensen93, Joelk75, ashesmonroe, albertogp123, >littleyiye<, mudgalbharat, Swami Stream, Dicemanic, lovelihood, anyjazz65, Tjeerd, albastrica mititica, jimmiehomeschoolmom, joshtasman, tedeytan, striatic, goforchris, torbakhopper, maggibautista, andreboeni, snigl3t, rainy city, frankieleon