Down South

Down South is a work of non fiction reflecting on ten years below the poverty line in South West England.

The main body of the work is likely to be tripartite: two parts will treat the working conditions and living conditions experienced by myself over the period 2017 – 2026; a third, A Bath Chronicle, will present my diary entries for the summer half of 2022.

I decided to keep a diary for a year during 2022 as part of a writing project, primarily focused on material conditions, and thinking about the want I was experiencing, the response of state and society to someone in my situation, my response to it as a socialist, and what I considered would be a reasonable standard and way of living at my stage of life (I began that year 47 years old). I managed to publish the first six months’ worth of entries online in something close to real time, before falling behind and storing the rest as paper entries very insecurely (these may not be recoverable). I returned to the material after a long while, realising 2026 would be the last year of what has been a very challenging decade, but also an opportunity to try to take stock.

The manuscript will be published here serially, in draft form, starting with the third part. I shall turn to parts I and II, and an introduction and conclusion subsequently.