Show Me the Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen
by Peter Apps
🏆 Winner of the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing (nonfiction)
Recommendations from our site
“The title of this book, ‘Show Me the Bodies,’ is of course the response that is ascribed to one of the civil servants working in the Department for Communities and Local Government who was warned before the Grenfell catastrophe that fire safety rules needed to be tightened. To have such an expansive history of Grenfell is phenomenal. The book is an incredible journey through the last 40 years of sometimes neglect, sometimes just carelessness, in the management of our housing stock by successive governments, ministers and civil servants, as well as councillors and building suppliers. It’s very carefully researched and unflinching.
It’s a very forensic look at how we got to Grenfell, but also all the other issues that we face in social housing. It’s not only devastating about the horrific tragedy at Grenfell, but it’s also the years of abuse that we’ve put people through because of the substandard quality of housing that they have lived in.”
