Homesick by Peter Apps is a study of the current housing crisis in London. The specific failures that led to the fire at Grenfell Tower are covered in Apps’ excellent book Show Me The Bodies, while Homesick examines the broader landscape of housing in the capital and how working people have been priced out of both buying and renting in London. The first half of the book looks at the last five decades of housing policy in the context of rapid deindustrialisation and deregulation of the private sector, and the impact of those policies is brought to life through profiles of various people who reside in London who explain how this economic transformation has affected their living situation and their local communities. It’s mind-boggling that people on relatively low incomes used to be able to afford property in zones 2 and 3 just a few short decades ago. After a couple of terrifying chapters about London’s ageing population and the current and future risks of flooding, fire and climate change, Apps attempts a slightly more optimistic conclusion by covering how other cities in Europe have addressed issues with social housing, although I can’t say I felt very hopeful about how these ideas could even begin to tackle the scale and complexity of the problem in London. Nevertheless, Apps is an excellent reporter and Homesick is essential reading. Continue reading
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Books I Read in December 2025
Books I Read in April 2023
Red Sauce Brown Sauce by Felicity Cloake is a travel memoir which documents the Guardian food writer’s “British breakfast odyssey” cycling around the UK in search of all the components of breakfast food from sausages in Glamorgan to potato bread in Northern Ireland to jam in Tiptree. Hampered by persistent hamstring injuries and COVID-19 restrictions which were still in place in the summer of 2021 when Cloake embarked on the trip, it’s a shame that some of her plans had to be abandoned, but a publisher’s deadline is clearly something that can’t be pushed back. As well as the usual everyday suspects such as eggs, bacon and Weetabix, I learned a lot about more esoteric regional delicacies such as laverbread, stotties, soda farls and pikelets. At the end of each chapter, Cloake poses the “red sauce or brown sauce” question to everyone she meets along the way on her journey… for me, it will always be ketchup. I will certainly seek out Cloake’s book ‘One More Croissant for the Road’ about her culinary travels in France. Continue reading
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