Simon's circumstances mean he takes a minimum wage job cleaning a factory. Every morning the cleaning team are left motivational notes by the supervisor. People and especially management only see them as cleaners but when Simon appears in a national newspaper their views change. It is a story of class, solidarity, kindness and comradeship where it it not the job you have that defines you but how you treat others that does.
About the Author :
Born in Loughborough, Simon Crump lived in Sheffield for forty years and now lives in Haworth. He is an internationally exhibited artist and the author of experimental fiction, including the composite novels My Elvis Blackout and Neverland, published by Bloomsbury. Other books include short story collection Monkey’s Birthday, the novel Twilight Time, and the historical non-fiction work They Call it U-Boat Hotel.
In 2017, he received a suspended prison sentence for environmental activism around the Sheffield street tree campaign. He coauthored a collection of eyewitness accounts of the campaign with Calvin Payne, Persons Unknown: the Battle for Sheffield’s Street Trees...
Review :
"Brilliantly special" - John Self, The Times
"'This is a book for anyone who has ever worked for an idiot who doesn't understand what you do but tells you how to do it anyway. Or for anyone who has ever had a laugh at work, or taken pleasure from the in jokes. or found a kindred spirit there who makes to feel less alone. Simon tells one colleague that 'when I lived in Sheffield, I had a microwave that had a 'Chaos' button on it (it really did) ' What happened when you pressed that? 'Norman Wisdom came round and cooked your tea...
Part of me wishes all books could be like this, but then it wouldn't be as brilliantly special as it is." - The Times
"It has been quite a while since I've read a book in a day but this was a special one. Funny, definitely sad in that way I like, vulnerable, clever, touching. A book with a lot of life behind it. One of my favourite books this year so far. A gem."
-- Rónán Hession, author of Leonard and Hungry Paul, Panenka, and Ghost Mountain.
