A really interesting insight into a small part of a job that really does see all sorts. Enjoyed this read

I really enjoyed reading this one, it was a perspective I hadn't heard from before and so was a really interesting read. Looking forward to reading more from the author in the future

I guess dealing with other peoples problems day in, day out must eventually take a toll on you - but my goodness, what a depressing read!!

Now I enjoy real life documentaries, and I read my fair share of so called “misery memoirs” so it’s not like I’m just a sunshine and rainbows reader, but while it was interesting to read about social housing issues, I was relieved to finish this book and get out of the perpetual grey, clogging feeling this book left me with.

For the author’s sake, I really hope he has found at least a little bit of sunshine and rainbows, because living and working the life that he portrayed is not good.

I received this book from the publishers via NetGalley. Reviews remain my own.

I usually end up saying this in the reviews I do of non-fiction, which probably tells you the kind of non-fiction I’m drawn to, but this is not an easy read. Yes, it’s clever and funny, and Nick Pettigrew manages to strike that fine balance between stuff that is quite frankly depressing, or upsetting, or tear-inducing, and humour, blending the two together in such a way you don’t forget the negatives, and the jokes attach themselves to the stories in a way that ensures you will remember.

The images Pettigrew creates are striking, and there’s always the underlying sense that whatever he thinks of the people he deals with, and whatever he has done, he wishes there were more ways he could make their lives better. The ASB officer’s role is complicated and difficult, and the kind of job that needs years of experience to make a really, very good officer, and you need those officers with experience to pass on the knowledge to younger folks joining them. Sadly, as Pettigrew lays out, this is not happening. Lacking adequate support, many of the officers who have been doing this ‘not a paramedic, police officer, social care worker but actually a little bit of all three’ role for a while are leaving, and it’s not the kind of job with good retention in the early stages.

Maybe we should be talking about this issue alongside issues such as teachers and GPs leaving their professions, because I promise you will not come out the other side of this book without a very good understanding that what ASB Officers do is vital and important to the communities they serve. And they do serve, moving from one estate to another, listening to the complaints – sometimes valid, sometimes not – of tenants, whether it’s about neighbours moving in their upstairs flat during their day to day lives, or abusive behaviour from the person living next door. These officers are instrumental in ensuring people are able to live in relative peace, without being threatened, harassed, or having their communal zones taken over by drug addicts and dealers, as well as, where they can, getting help for those suffering from addiction, and mental health, and other issues.

Importantly in this memoir, it’s clear one of the things that makes Nick Pettigrew so very good at his job is his empathy and understanding, some element of that coming from his own upbringing. And with those skills, he gets the reader to understand his position as well as the situations of the people he deals with on a day to day basis. To be fair, he always puts forth arguments about countering what happens on some estates, on how things can be better managed for the sake of all involved.

He’s also very open about his own mental health problems, and how his job impacts them. There’s a very memorable scene where he goes away on holiday, and speaking to another couple about his job, he gets asked about mental health. And it’s easy to picture Nick Pettigrew responding with yes, they have things they can do for the tenants, yes it’s all very underfunded and limited but they do what they can…

Until it’s pointed out the asker was enquiring to his health, acknowledging how the job must impact the officers. Even through his writing, it’s easy to see how deeply Pettigrew cares – he cares when they’re able to help tenants, he cares when someone is going through something horrific, he cares when they’re not quite able to help as much as they would like to.

At one point, the UK had a strange fascination with ‘anti-social behaviour’, driven partly by the introduction of ASBOs – anti-social behaviour orders – which were then handed out so regularly, for sometimes ridiculous reasons, largely to teenagers, they took on their own kind of meaning. Rather than being a deterrent, for some teens these became badges of honour, and it wasn’t hard to get one. Then they were replaced in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and though many have probably been witness to ‘anti-social behaviour’, or heard stories of such, the whole concept kind of disappeared from the public eye.

Yet where there are humans, it seems there will often be some kind of ‘anti-social behaviour’, and ‘anti-social’ is too often in the eye of the complainer. But in the book Pettigrew details not only the worst cases, but almost everything he dealt with in a single year. And it’s a lot, a job where it truly seems ‘no day is the same’, though that’s not always a good thing. What shines through is how good he is at the job, even when it involves switching from one mode to the other, and even when faced with abuse himself he manages to keep such a deep well of compassion.

This isn’t the worst of humanity, and Pettigrew is careful to demonstrate this, too, showing how these communities come together in times of crisis, and how even at the end of receiving abusive behaviour, the average person will want to help the person who maybe just needs something that is currently missing from their lives.

Again, not an easy read, but definitely, very much worth it, and an excellently written account into a relatively unknown profession. And just on the off chance he does read this, at some point – thank you, Nick. For the job and for allowing us readers a peek into the profession.

A funny, sad thought provoking read. For me personally the most thought provoking was that this is a real life memoir and not just a story.. We tend to forget that these things are going on when we're living our happy and privilige lives that we so easily take for granted.

I really enjoyed this book and found it such an interesting and intriguing perspective. I love titles like this and would love more from the author.

I work in property management in lettings and as you can imagine, I come up against my fair share of dealing with Anti social behaviour and tenants.

Anti-Social: the secret diary of an anti-social behaviour officer.

This read is hilarious! Some of the stories are so over the top you’d think they weren’t real but after doing the job I do for over 4+ years I can imagine they are all actually true.

Whilst there are some seriously funny stories in this book, there are also the more emotional stories about the tenants that are suffering with poor mental health and fall through the cracks for support. I have seen first hand tenants with poor mental health and how there isn’t the support out there that they need or where there is the help, it’s overwhelmed and underfunded.
This read highlights that this is another sector that does a lot for our community, without people really respecting what they do but also an area that doesn’t receive the required funding and backing from the government.

If you enjoyed Adam Kay's This is Going to Hurt, then I think you would enjoy this one too!

As someone who has to deal with a lot of anti-social behaviour through work, this was an interesting read.

It's nice to read about other agencies who are also trying their best to help people even though we have less money and time.

There are also some nice moments that help to lighten the mood.

An interesting and eye-opening book but I got bored half-way through and gave up. I may go back to it. My husband wants to read though so if he does I will update the review.

I intended to read this in chunks while also reading a fiction book (I often find it hard to commit to non fiction for the whole thing) but wound up reading it all without pausing to dip into a novel, which is a compliment coming from me! Very funny and wry but with a sense of seriousness and respect for the topic. I found myself sympathising while i was chuckling - a rare combo. Definitely worth a read for both entertainment and insight.

Nick Pettigrew has worked as an Anti-Social Behaviour Officer for over a decade. This means that if you are unhappy with the behaviour of your neighbours, whether they are playing loud music, letting their kids scream their heads off, or they’re inviting crowds round to smoke crack cocaine in their house, then he is the person that you would call to resolve it. Nick takes us through a year in his working life, describing with great humour and a clear eye the trials and tribulations of his working life, and the strain that it can take on the people who are trying to do a good job. Similar in scope to This Is Going To Hurt by Adam Mackay, this is a thoughtful insight into a job that people will be aware of, but may not have considered too deeply.

There are entertaining stories of nuisance callers, people for whom any noise is too much noise, and people who are convinced that all of their neighbours are living purely to annoy them. But this is interspersed with truly tragic tales of people who have simply fallen through the cracks and need some support due to mental health issues or difficult life circumstances. Nick is shining a light on the real impact of government cuts to funding and community services. I feel that this is really important to be aware of as I think it is really easy to ignore these issues if you are not directly impacted by them. There are lots of factors that contribute to this, including the lack of social housing stock and lack of resources for people in need, which places an ever increasing burden on the people who are left trying to help, such as Nick and his colleagues.

I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it highly. I think it deals with a delicate subject matter in an effective way, looking at serious, real issues with a light touch and it delivers an important insight into the people who are trying their best to maintain communities under difficult circumstances, which comes with plenty of highs and humour as well as lows.

I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

This book offers a unique insight into the life and work of a local authority worker with brutal honesty, humour, compassion, frustration and humanity.

This book follows Nick in a year of being an anti-social behaviour officer. This job isn’t one I’ve heard much about and it’s often overlooked.

Drawing on his many years of experience, he offers a real insight into the role. It’s a very tough and demanding job, with a huge workload.
Some of the supposed complaints are ridiculous and quite funny, whereas others are drawn out and traumatic for all involved.

Nick is a comedian I believe, and I thought the humour would be too try hard. It’s not, and the cases are dealt with sensitively but with humour where appropriate.

It’s an easy read and I found myself picking it up to have a read quite often. It’s split into little sections, like a diary, so you can dip in and out of it.

I found this interesting and readable and would recommend.

Thanks to Random House UK and NetGalley for a copy for review.

4 Stars from me

I was captivated by the easy style and dry humour of Nick Pettigrew in this book. It is a tough old subject and although that very much came across, Pettigrew made it entertaining and accessible.

It felt to me like quite an important book as it drew such awareness to this side of life and the people who work in this world - not to mention those who live in this world.

It is liberally peppered with dark comedic moments which are much needed among the daily gloom - I take my hat off to all who do this job, ditto social workers, ditto probation officers.

The nod to the prescription (and non prescription) ways in which he medicated in order to cope with the job was sad but I am very sure true. 

All in all, a very clever way of bringing this life to the forefront of people's minds and highlighting the difficulties faced by those tackling this difficult area of employment.

Clever, darkly funny, true to life and and excellent read.

I loved this book. I do a very similar job so I can confirm everything Nick has written is no exaggeration.
His writing was brilliant and totally captured the realities of peoples lives on a daily basis and despite Nick struggling himself his humour shines through in order to get through the day to day activities or people lives which are blighted by neighbour nuisance, drugs domestic violence and more too and also the threats of danger you have to put your self in.

A great compelling read from start to finish

I started this book with no idea what it was about so was surprised when instead of fiction I found myself reading the day to day "adventures" of an Anti Social Behaviour Officer. I had no idea such a job even existing!

Nick brings humour to depressing, dark situations.... helping the reader to understand the realities of life for many.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in return for an honest review.

Anti-Social is the light-hearted documentation of a slow, year-long breakdown.

Nick Pettigrew exposes the life of an anti-social behaviour officer, with all its highs and lows (both the illegal and the legal and medically induced). Each section starts with a month, a jokey password and the dose of medication – or self-medication – that the author was on, like a hardcore Bridget Jones.

The anecdotes are self-contained snippets that give little snapshots of the day-to-day job of an ASBO. Certain ‘characters’ do pop up more than once, but for others their stories are left as fleeting and unfinished vignettes. This pattern reflects the nature of the work, as the officer’s involvement in each person’s life lasts only as long as their case requires, and also reality, as not every real-life story has a neat and tidy conclusion.

Throughout the book, the tone remains upbeat and full of black humour, but also quietly desperate. It actually becomes quite painful to read towards the end, as you follow the author’s inevitable spiral downwards as he deals with the daily small tragedies, indignities and cruelties that proliferate around the borders of illegal and anti-social behaviours.

Anti-Social provides a deeply interesting insight into a difficult job that is well-known but not widely understood and, tangentially, also insight into heaps of human nature as well… the good the bad, and the very, very stupid. An utterly entertaining, but not an easy read, this book left me with a huge sense of respect for Nick Pettigrew and his fellow ASBOs, and the underappreciated work they do.



'All of what follows is true. All of it has either happened directly to me or has been relayed to me by a colleague. My job requires no embellishment. Exaggerating would be like drinking Red Bull to swallow ketamine or putting go-faster stripes on a lightning bolt. There’s no point. Identifying details have been changed to protect the innocent and guilty, as well as those who swear they’re not guilty but obviously are.'

– Nick Pettigrew, Anti-Social


Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

I thought this was fantastic, I really enjoyed the insight into his year at work, I’ve no idea how the man had managed to stay sane to be honest (with great difficulty as seen in the book)!

Some exceptionally interesting stories and characters, lots of subjects are written about here such as social housing and welfare and mental health all handled with a brilliant sense of humour but serious in parts too,

In all a bloody good read and one I think we all should read! Loved it...

Anti-Social by Nick Pettigrew. It reminds me of The Secret Barrister. It given a candid view of a year in the life of a Council Anti Social Behaviour officer. It is a shocking, and very much a wake up call for the reduction of all of our Social agencies. Cut back in Mental Health , Social Service, Policing and other front line services mean that more and more people are falling through the safety net.

People with really serious mental heath issues, that many years ago would have been treated and help, and left with little or no support. An alarming number of ASB issues are due to people suffering from un treated mental health issues. There are some really heart breaking stories in here.

There are also stories of people who are just plain anti-social of course. But this book will truly bring home that as a society we are not helping those who truly need our help. The sick, the weak and the venerable are left to fend for themselves in a sea of sharks.

The books really works, in getting across the sense of frustration of a man working with almost his arm tied behind his back. A feeling of powerlessness and the total lack of back up from our society. He is suffering the result of this with his own mental health issues. It shows that he too is a victim of the system. The reason for this is he want to do the right thing, and is a decent human being. So despite his dark tone a times, Nick is likable and comes across as doing his very best. I am left feeling for him. It makes for a good read, and also will do some good if widely read. Very much a book of our times. Great / Highly recommend.

I felt that this book was going to be such an interesting read. The book synopsis sounded great and full of entertainment and promise. However, upon reading it - I found the book to be extremely repetitive and not all that interesting. I had such high hopes for this book and found that the majority of the book centred around the office rather than the actual role