Anti-Social

The Secret Diary of an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer

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Anti-Social

By: Nick Pettigrew

Narrated by: Nick Pettigrew

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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Perfect for fans of The Secret Barrister and Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt.

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Has your life become unbearable because the person living above you has a fondness for crack cocaine, the company of strangers and dance music? Or maybe you're a social worker, mental health nurse, police officer, firefighter, dog warden or vicar and you've been landed with someone who's a pain in the arse. Who are you going to call? That would be me: an anti-social behaviour officer.

Anti-Social is the diary of a council worker whose job is to keep his community happy, or at least away from each other's throats. That's hard enough at the best of times but when government cuts mean that hospitals, social services and police are all at breaking point, the possibility of complete chaos is never far away.

This is an urgent, timely but, most of all, hysterically funny true story of a life spent working with the people society wants to forget and the problems that nobody else can resolve. This book will make you laugh, cry and boil with rage within a single sentence.

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AS SEEN ON BBC BREAKFAST AND ITV'S LORRAINE

Poverty & Homelessness

Social Sciences

Funny

Thought-Provoking

Emotionally Gripping

Heartfelt

Inspiring

Witty

Mental Health

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Critic reviews

A gruesome and darkly comic insight into the life of a ASB Officer. Think Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt but with more dead bodies (and not just human ones) and an abundance of cat shit. It's a gloriously cynical read but it's also sympathetic and deeply empathetic. Being an ASB Officer comes across as one of those "rotten but somebody's got to do it jobs" and I was glad that in these cases, that that somebody was the author. (Kathy Burke)

Superb. This hysterically funny and moving memoir of an anti-social behaviour officer is a real eye-opener that hits all the right notes (Frankie Boyle)

Most relevant

Been there done that, loved and hated it. As an ex-ASB officer, who has many times said "we could write a book on all we see, but would people believe us? " I'm glad Nick has obliged. The job of an ASB officer is, really, just as Nick describes. the humour through the book is a mix of Nick, and how the job drives you to cope with what you experience pretty much day in and day out. A good (audible) read that I found myself agreeing with 99% of the time, as I had my own real life examples to match Nick's colourful case load. The lack of wellbeing provision for ASB officers (and front line housing staff in general) is woefully lacking and this is evident here as Nick pulls no punches in describing how the job affects him personally. The book highlights humour as a coping mechanism, frustrations at people, partners and processes, and a desire to see lives changed which any good ASB officer has in equal measure (while the drug history and excessive drinking is not my experience!). it also articulates well the sad predicaments people are in due to poverty, trauma, poor education and loneliness. I really recommend this book, however, I think it could make my friends still working in ASB cry at the helplessness of their's and their tenants'realities of trying to work in a very broken system. If you've ever suffered ASB and felt you "got no help from Housing", this book might give an insight into how your ASB officer most likely tried to deal with it behind the scenes, and how, at times, were as frustrated as you. This book contains lots of swearing - partly a reality of the job, partly because it evidences Nick's exhaustion/own use of language. Not everyone can work in ASB, so maybe this book isn't for everyone; and while Nick explains that the Judges hearing the ASB cases have little idea of the realities of life in some (not all) social and council housing, perhaps this book might make a handy Christmas present for any you may know!