Questions people ask

About the book

Is it a true story? No. It is a novel. The children, the families and the cases are invented. What is true is the job.

Is it a memoir with the names changed? No. Nobody in it is a real person with a different name. I made them up.

Is it funny or is it sad? Yes.

How long is it? 352 pages. The entries are short, so it goes faster than that sounds. About seven hours, if you read at an ordinary speed and do not stop to text somebody.

Do I need to know anything about social work? No. There is a glossary at the front of the book, and a longer one here.

Is there anything in it I should know about before I start? It is about child protection. So it includes neglect, domestic abuse, the sexual abuse of a teenager, and grief. None of it is graphic. If any of it is close to home, there are people who can help.

Is it suitable for teenagers? It was written for adults. The subject is hard. There is swearing, and the grown-ups in it have love lives, though the bedroom door stays shut. An older teenager who is thinking about social work would be fine with it.

Where is it set? Coventry, from September 2015 to August 2016. The council in the book is invented. It is not a portrait of Coventry City Council or of anybody who works there.

Why 2015? Because a great deal has changed since, and I wanted to write about how it felt then: the systems, the phones, the things we said without thinking. And because nobody can mistake it for a comment on last week.

Buying it

Where can I get it? Amazon, in paperback and on Kindle. It is also in Kindle Unlimited.

Can I get it in a bookshop? Not yet. It is printed by Amazon, and bookshops order from elsewhere. If enough shops ask, there will be an edition they can order. If you are a bookseller and you would like it, tell me. It helps.

Is there an audiobook? Not yet. I would like there to be.

Can I buy copies for my whole team? Yes. Amazon will send any number to a work address. There is a page about buying for a team. If you are buying twenty or more, write to me first. There is also a free discussion guide and posters for the wall.

Would it make a good present? For somebody who does the job, yes. There is a page about that, with things to write in the front.

Can I get a signed copy? No. A signature is a name, and I am not using mine.

About Maisie

Who are you? Somebody who did the job. That is the part that matters.

Why a pen name? Four reasons, one of which is cowardice.

Are you still a social worker? I still work with children and families. I am not going to say where.

Will you come and speak at our event? I can’t come in person. I can answer questions in writing, as fully as you like, for somebody to read out. It works better than it sounds.

Is the blog real? The 2015 blog is the one Maisie keeps in the novel. The posts, the comments underneath them and the adverts are all fiction. The notebook is new, and is me.

Will there be another book? Ask me when this one has stopped frightening me.

For particular readers

I am a parent, and children’s services are involved with my family. Is this book against me? No. I hope you will find that it is not. The angriest and truest speech in it belongs to a young mother, and nobody in the book has an answer to her. There is a page for you.

I grew up in care. Will it upset me? It might. There is a nine-year-old in foster care at the centre of it, and he is treated with love by the book and by most of the people in it. You know yourself best.

I am a foster carer. Thank you. This is for you.

I am about to qualify. Start here.

I teach on a social work course. Can I use it? Please do. The discussion guide is free to copy.

Something else

Ask me. I read everything.