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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

©2020 Nick Pettigrew (P)2020 Penguin Audio 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)
All stars
Most relevant  
Should be compulsory for everyone in politics to read this - read it and understand it!

Required Reading

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Both funny and sad. I enjoyed listening to this whilst working from home. Makes me happy and thankful for my own life but very sad for most of the people in this book.

Loved this book

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Coming from the public sector myself this book was recommended to me. Nick tells a really good unbalanced story which at Times had me laughing in hysterics but almost welling up at other times.

Laugh out loud, reflective, interesting and sad all in the same sentence

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I found the author brilliant. Dark humour but backed up with intellectual view points. One story nearly made me cry. It gives you an insight to how others live if you have been sheltered from it. I would love another book from him.

Excellent

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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!

accurate, funny & sad account of an impossible job

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Loved it, not one dull chapter. Highly recommended. My current role mentioned in the book so genuinely resonates so much for me, read this you will learn something it might change how you view people who have been dealt a shittier hand in life than you. Bravo Nick great piece of work.

Honest, funny, thought provoking.

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This is such an important book, which makes how easy it is to listen to all the more impressive. Nick Pettigrew tackles some incredibly difficult subject matter with insight, empathy and deliciously dark humour. Equal parts hilarious and heartbreaking, I devoured this in just two days.

Fascinating, hilarious, devastating

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As my review title, this book is a compelling listen.
Nick narrates his actual experiences with a clear voice that makes you want to hear everything he has to say.
The experiences he relates to are actually cases of real life and are eye opening onto the often forgotten of our society.
His humour makes for belly laughs and some of the people involved make you want to cry for them.
In his epilogue, I now agree that drugs should be legalised, provided the caution he describes is paramount.
Thanks for good work Nick.

Fantastic, funny, sad and eye opening

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A gritty, sometimes funny, more often heart rending account of a year in the life of an Antisocial Behaviour Officer ‘somewhere in England’. Nick Pettigrew has managed to convey, with sometimes painful honesty, the problems, frustrations and occasional rewards of working with and for people with a wide range of social, drug related and mental issues, and the effect that it had on his own mental health. Beneath a slightly cynical veneer there is an obvious empathy with his ‘customers’ and a genuine desire to help. A sometimes uncomfortable to listen to but thought provoking account that would make a fascinating tv documentary.

A year in the life of . . .

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I was aware of some of the issues that the author writes about but still found it highly educational.
The big surprize was the amount of humour although most of it quite dark. The descriptions of the individuals concered were great and gave an insight into the everyday difficulties that the authors role entails.
Usually im not fond of author read books- unless that author is an actor, comedian etc. in this case the narration was great.
Highly recommended.

a must read for policy makers

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