Cash is *determined* to tell her woeful story of poverty and deprivation even if the facts don’t seem to tally with it. Why let such boring details get in the way of a ripping yarn? And she’s determined to make it the government’s fault, and to blame All Men (except scruffy ones who don’t wear suits and make art, those men are allowed a small pass). Plus, she thinks no one can possibly have problems or sadness if they’re not on the breadline. How boring, how cliched, how...utterly infuriating. Daisy May Cooper (This Country) is to star in the show, which is provisionally titled Cash Carraway.

This is the memoir of a woman who is not a stain on society. She’s not a shameful secret, stealing money from the government. She’s not lazy, or greedy. She’s a single mother, raising a child in a city she loves, with no support network and a history of domestic abuse. Cash Carraway is just one voice in millions that we never hear. Forgotten and ignored. This is her story, her life - but unfortunately it’s far from unique. Cash Carraway said: “The show is about a brash yet intelligent working-class single mum who not only lives in extreme inner-city poverty but a state of ridicule and humiliation as she attempts to improve her life.Det är en högst politisk text: hur dyrt det är att vara fattig, att ses som en belastning för samhället, hur det konservativa partiet (tory) drar in på sociala skyddsnät för ensamstående mammor (”de får skylla sig själva”, ”skaffa inte barn om du inte har råd”), när skyddshemmet för utsatta kvinnor kollapsar (taket ramlar in) och det tar 8 timmar för någon slags personal att komma, problemet när hyresrätter (som uppfördes för socialt utsatta personer) privatiseras och får marknadshyror. Hur omöjligt det är att hosta upp 6 månaders förskottshyra i deposition, att jobba för 1 pund i timmen, att bara kunna jobba när barnet är i skolan (eftersom barnomsorg är så dyrt att bara medelklassen har råd) och vilka slags jobb som finns kvar. Hur nästan omöjligt det är att ta sig ur situationen. Hur kvinnor alltid är offren.

She is also very funny. “Lots of things about living in a woman’s refuge make me laugh,” she says, which is not the most common response. She isn’t above selling stories about her wretched daily grind of budgeting to a trashy supermarket magazine. Even they found her piece about period poverty to be too strong to print, though at least they paid her for it. I am a working class single mother myself - one of the reasons I was drawn to this book. But Cash’s life is not mine. Though their voices are very different, in some ways each woman’s journey to writing her book – their hoped-for route out of the situations they describe – is comparable. Both had challenging teenage years; both went to university; both took too many drugs and had disastrous relationships; both imagined they lived in a country with adequate safety nets for those prepared to work, and discovered in the decade of austerity and the benefits cap that they did not. One crucial fact, in the context of each, is precisely the same, however. In the 20-odd years since they came of age, average house prices in Britain have risen seven times faster than average wages. Along with millions of others, they are the casualties of that economic fact. Davies creates a life in which she “still feels skint but no longer poor” At times, these two first-time memoirists seem almost too self-consciously eloquent about their struggles to be thought of as representative. But their books nonetheless give powerful voice to the often silent story that explains so much of Britain’s current fracturing: the fact that half a generation can afford no settled place from which they can start to build a life. The darkly funny debut memoir from the creator of HBO and BBC's Rain Dogs, Skint Estate is a scream against austerity that rises full of rage in a landscape of sink estates, police cells, refuges and peepshows.

We shouldn’t just need to be on the brink of something to just survive. We should be enjoying life. Holding it all together is Cooper, in what is sure to be a career-defining performance. Tough and frustrated, the star of This Country lets us feel sorry for her character but never allows it to tip over into pity. Costello is a woman who can handle herself, and Cooper’s unhesitant skill of switching from comedy to tragedy within the space of a scene is a marvel. One scene halfway through the series, in which Costello breaks down having had all her money stolen, took my breath away. Cash Carraway blir som 16 åring utkastad av sin gränslösa och destruktiva mamma. Pappan försvann strax före och skaffar snabbt en ny familj, utan att ta ansvar för dottern. Cash hamnar i destruktiva relationer och när hon är runt 29 blir hon gravid, till sin glädje. Äntligen kan hon få den familjen hon saknar. Den blivande pappa slår sönder ansiktet på henne när han får veta och hotar att se till att hon får ett missfall, om hon inte ordnar en abort själv. Cash Carraway's unique voice, filled in equal measure with rage and inspiration, tells a story of hope amongst state violence. Brilliant and compelling. Anna Minton Cash lämnar mannen och ägnar sin graviditet att jobba ihop 10 000 pund på en peepshow, summan som behövs för att skaffa bostad och vara hemma med barnet. Men när dottern äntligen kommer blir Cash deprimerad och ensam och funderar på att ta sitt liv. Tyvärr blir det inte lättare, det blir värre.

This was a very readable memoir about the authors life. She delves into the reasons behind her poverty and explains very matter of factly what she has had to deal with from a young age. The language is harsh in places, but this helps to make full impact. This will make you question if you (weren't already) the benefits system, the 0 hours system and affordable housing situation. These two very different books, by women in their late 30s, are written in response to the same question: how do you find a room to call your own in Britain in 2019?This is the last article you can read this month You can read more article this month You can read more articles this month Sorry your limit is up for this month On the beat … police officer Adam Naismith with police dog Wolf. Photograph: Tommy Ga-Ken Wan/Firecrest Films/BBC Working class single mothers are vilified in the media. Benefit scum, lazy, Jeremy Kyle fodder. The women who really anger the Daily Mail types. The type of women that the white middle aged men on faceless social media platforms like to say things like ‘they shouldn’t have kids if they can’t afford them’ and ‘they should be sterilised for wasting my tax payers money’ you know exactly who I’m talking about. They are the people that should read this book. This takes you from women’s refuges and police cells to peep shows and strip clubs. Where bankruptcy, temporary accommodation, food banks and period poverty are regular occurrences. This book shows you how our current benefit system is not working. How the government is cleansing London if it’s working class and people are turning a blind eye.