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Songs of Innocence
As recently as one hundred years ago British children existed in ways now unthinkable; boys as young as eight worked gruelling hours in unlit factories; girls were sold into sexual slavery with dolls still in their grasp; and boys at schools like Rugby and Harrow were brutally trained for their future at the helm of Britain's vast red empire. In Songs of Innocence Fran Abrams charts the transformation of childhood in the UK from early Victorian disagreements about child-rearing to the Scouts' very direct involvement in the First World War. Poignant first-hand accounts of poverty and deprivation as well as innocent pleasures carry the reader through a Dickensian landscape of urchins and Faunt...
Freedom's Cause
For the 100th anniversary of the Suffrage Movement, a compelling history of the women (and two men) who made the biggest change ever in British democracy: votes for 50% of the population When Emmeline Pankhurst gathered a small group of women in Manchester 10 October1903, the mood was defiant. For the Suffragette movement, founded that day, sprang not merely from a simple desire to change the law but also from a deep-seated anger over sexism within the Labour movement. The fiery nature of its conception and birth was to characterise the Women's Social and Political Union, as it was formally known, throughout the 12 turbulent years of its life. In fact, what distinguished it from the more staid women's franchise campaigns which went before was its militancy - and, of course, its sheer bloody-minded determination.This is the remarkable (and often heroic story) of the Suffragettes, told through 12 portraits of their leaders, of ordinary members, of radicals and waverers.
Learning to Fail
During a decade of relative prosperity from the mid-1990s onward, governments across the developed world failed to crack one major issue – youth unemployment. Even when economic growth was strong, one young person in 10 in the United Kingdom was neither working nor learning. As the boom ended, the number of young people dropping out after leaving school – already acknowledged to be too high - began to rise at an alarming rate. As governments face up to the prospect of a new generation on the dole, this book examines the root causes of the problem. By holding a light to the lives and attitudes of eight young people, their families, their teachers and their potential employers, this book w...
Below the Breadline
A poignant and brilliant account of trying to live in Britain today on the minimum wage - £4.10 an hour Fran Abrams was commissioned by the Guardian to work as a night cleaner at the Savoy - living on (or as it turned out - below) the minimum wage. A short version of that experience appeared in the paper in January 2002. For Profile, she spent a month living on (in fact below) the minimum wage in South Yorkshire working in a pickle factory and then another month in Scotland working as a care assistant. In the tradition of George Orwell_s Down & Out in London & Paris, this book shows what it is like to try to live on £4.10 an hour. Where can you live? What can you afford to eat? Or do in the evening? What are the jobs - and the workmates and bosses like? This book, in entertaining prose, sympathetic portraits and a telling eye for detail reveals all - including the extraordinary differences across the length of Britain.
Seven Kings
Offering an insight into the daily life of seven average teenagers over the course of a school year, this book discusses some of the issues which are important to young people today.
How It Feels to Be A Teenager
In this vivid and involving piece of literary reportage, Fran Abrams follows a group of young people for a year, at school and at home. What exactly does it feel like to be a teenager today?
Arranging Words
Arranging Words is Abrams' second chapbook collection. Like her first chapbook, The Poet Who Loves Pythagoras, this book is a series of light-hearted poems that asks the reader to look at the world from a new perspective. These poems approach letters, words, and everyday phrases in a way that pokes fun at the eccentricities of the English language. For example, her poem titled "K Knows How to Hide and Seek" begins with the line "K knocks twice, but we only hear him once," reminds us how often "k" is a silent letter. The poem "Poetry Exercise" plays on the meaning of the word "exercise" with the line "Brain cells stretch, lift your arms, reach for words." Phrases are deconstructed into literal meanings, such as in the poem "Beside Myself" that asks, "Am I myself or the one beside myself?" This collection illuminates the quirks of the English language in a lively, humorous way while demonstrating a love for words themselves.
What Would Keir Hardie Say
Keir Hardie is a significant figure in British history. He is known as the founder of the Labour Party but his influence went much wider. 100 years after his death the question is still often asked, "What would Keir Hardie say?" A group of distinguished writers have come together to write about different aspects of Hardie's life and legacy: Fran Abrams, Melissa Benn, Jeremy Corbyn, John Callow, Bob Holman, Cathy Jamieson, William Knox, Richard Leonard, Owen Smith, Dave Watson, Barry Winter. Each of them tackles one aspect of Hardie's varied interests from his support for women's suffrage, his internationalism, to his central role in the foundation of the Labour Party. Each essay considers the relevance of Keir Hardie's work to our lives today. The Foreword by Keir Hardie's great granddaughter, Dolores May Arias, reminds us that as well as his huge public presence, Hardie was a family man. And like so many great figures in history his family paid a price.
A Fair Day’s Wage for a Fair Day’s Work?
The nature of sweating and the origins of low pay legislation are of fundamental social, economic and moral importance. Although difficult to define, sweating, according to a select committee established to investigate the issue, was characterised by long hours, poor working conditions and above all by low pay. By the beginning of the twentieth century the government estimated that up to a third of the British workforce could be classed as sweated labour, and for the first time in a century began to think about introducing legislation to address the problem. Whilst historians have written much on unemployment, poverty relief and other such related social and industrial issues, relatively lit...
