I enjoy reading real life experiences from different professionals – they usually give a great insight into aspects of life that I don’t normally see, and Nick Pettigrew’s Anti-Social is no exception.
Pettigrew gives a fascinating perspective on the ‘secret life’ of the anti social behaviour officer. We go through a year in his life, following various cases. He takes us alongside him into flats where neighbours have complained about noise, parties, drugs and more. Together with the month by month analysis of his working life, we also begin to understand the toll this type of work takes on the officer himself.
Nick Pettigrew has a wry sense of humour, honed over years of working with challenging members of society in a setting where budgets are shrinking and teams are perpetually understaffed. I would have liked to have been drawn further into some of the exchanges that take place in each chapter – with more direct speech rather than description – but that’s a minor complaint. This is a compelling book which kept me reading right through to the end where we find out what happens to some of Pettigrew’s longer term clients, and to Nick himself.