Description

A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK

A luminous, uplifting and deeply moving memoir by a care worker, told through her funny, heartbreaking, sometimes frustrating, and always eye-opening encounters with the often overlooked and marginalised people she cares for.

Kate never expected to become a home care worker. But when she left her senior role in the NHS, burnt-out and disheartened, she thought caring for people in their own homes would be a simpler job. Despite being determined not to become too involved with her ‘customers’, she soon found herself developing firm friendships, forging deep connections and bearing witness to the extraordinary drama to be found in ordinary lives.

With energy, compassion and clarity, her memoir gives an astonishing insight into this unsung – and often maligned – profession, and into the hidden lives of the housebound and infirm. From Beryl who screams like a banshee whenever Kate tries to wash her, but collapses in giggles when her toes are tickled, to bawdy Mr Radbert who ‘promised to give me his car when he can remember where he left it’.

Every Kind of People is clear-eyed about the challenges facing the NHS and the care system. But it is above all a celebration of humanity and of the life-changing impact of caring, on those who offer it and those who receive it.

‘Being as close as this to someone is a uniquely precious place to be. It is a place where secrets are revealed and fears are shared and outrageous jokes are made that could not be told to anyone else. It is a coal face of human experience’

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‘The work of a natural storyteller … All kinds of brilliant’ JON McGREGOR

‘I am in love with Kate’s storytelling, her ability to see the person and her fabulous, dry humour. This is a book about caring, and it’s also a book about being in love with humanity’ KATHRYN MANNIX

‘An extraordinary account of what it is to care for others, both beautiful and painful to read. This book is a compassionate invitation to get up close to the human condition and those who attend to it’ DR GWEN ADSHEAD, author of The Devil You Know

‘An extraordinary and important book that will make you laugh, cry, admire and despair in equal measure… A wonderful achievement’ DAVID HASLAM

Publisher Review

Every Kind of People is not just essential reading for anyone curious about the realities of care work in this country; it's also the work of a natural storyteller, and a book full of empathy, humour, and - yes - care. All kinds of brilliant * Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand * An extraordinary account of what it is to care for others, both beautiful and painful to read. This book is a compassionate invitation to get up close to the human condition and those who attend to it * Dr Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know * This is an extraordinary and important book that will make you laugh, cry, admire and despair in equal measure. Beautifully written, it is both heart-warming and inspiring, but also left me with deep anger and puzzlement that care work can be so demeaned as "low skill" by our political leaders. How can a decent society so undervalue such difficult, challenging, and important work? Every Kind of People is a wonderful achievement * David Haslam * Marvellously life-affirming and utterly humbling * Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Editor's Choice * This is a fantastic and important book. It reads like a novel, complete with vivid characters, humour and tragedy. Above all, it is an insight into the hidden life of a care worker. I was lost in admiration * Tom Shakespeare * I am in love with Kate's storytelling, her ability to see the person and her fabulous, dry humour. This is a book about caring, and it's also a book about being in love with humanity * Kathryn Mannix, author of With the End in Mind * In a first of its kind, here is a memoir of a home care worker: a deeply compelling story of one of the most unsung professions in the UK, brimming with anecdotes to make you both laugh and cry. A vital book * inews, The Best New Books to Read in October *