10th March - Charlie Colenutt, Is This Working?

Monday 10th March, 7:30pm

Backstory, 71 Balham High Rd, SW12 9AP

We’re welcoming Charlie Colenutt to discuss something most British adults have in common: Work. In Is This Working? Colenutt compiles two years of research where he traveled across the UK talking to ordinary people about their jobs—from bakers to care home workers to investment bankers. This is a wide-sweeping look at modern Britain, focused on how we spend our working hours.

About the book:

For the best part of two years Charlie Colenutt travelled the country to talk to a hundred strangers, from all walks of life about their jobs: What did they do for a living? Why did they do it? Did they like it? They met in coffee shops, chain pubs or front rooms. Through hearing people tell their stories, he found out the number of birds killed a day in a poultry factory, the order in which patients are woken up in care homes, and the reasons why you shouldn’t smile when you are shown your bonus in an investment bank. He spoke with the church minister who, maddened by his email inbox, has come to feel more like an administrator than a spiritual leader; the cleaner that became so frustrated by the lack of change in her local area that she ran to be a councillor and won; the baker who used to hate touching flour; and the trade union organiser, not pressured by hours or targets, but by the cause.

Together, the voices in Is This Working? tell a story about the one thing that most British adults have in common – work.

Tickets Available:

Ticket only - £15 (This ticket does not include a copy of the book. You can decide to buy a copy on the night, but this will be charged in addition, at the full price of the book.)

Ticket & book  (RRP £20) - £25 (If you live locally, feel free to pop in to collect this in advance.)