Journalist think-tank report writer & mother Harriet Sergeant befriended a teenage gang when she was researching a report on why so many black Caribbean & white working class boys are failing. Gangs like this are responsible for the majority of crime in our inner cities. During the riots of August 2011 they were the young men setting our streets ablaze. All the issues we all associate with Britains gang culture
- single mothers absent fathers lack of education & social mobility the criminal justice system
- take on a new meaning for Harriet as she enters their world & sees institutions through their eyes. It is a revelation. By the end of the book Tuggy Tug was found guilty of committing over a hundred street robberies. He & two other gang members are in prison one is in mental hospital & one appears to be a successful criminal. In this remarkable challenging angry book Harriet Sergeant reports from a world of teenagers who have been abandoned by the state & in many cases their parents & provides a valuable insight into an ignored corner of our society. As Britain faces up to the aftermath of the riots this book should be required reading for us all.