Dark Heart: The Shocking Truth About Hidden Britain

"As you say, Nick Davies is a brilliant investigative journalist. Dark Heart is not so much about crime but about poverty, but he does show how they are linked. He was at a fairground in the centre of Nottingham and noticed two boys hanging around, whom he befriended. They take him on a very dark journey around the streets of Nottingham – one that involves child prostitutes, pimps, vice squads and drugs. The title Dark Heart has got echoes of Conrad. You go deeper and deeper into poverty. Davies uses a quote from Henry Mayhew: “The undiscovered country of the poor.” That is basically where he takes you in the book, into areas that no one really knows about – a world of violent estates and people so poor they have no electricity and have to use candles. What’s interesting about this book for me are the human stories. It does not read like a long column in the society section of The Guardian ­– it’s a book of powerful human stories. It was a big influence on me when I was researching Hood Rat , because I realised if I was going to write about social issues that I would have to write powerful human stories to make it readable, otherwise it could easily become earnest and worthy. If you are going to write about social justice, you need to take the reader with you. That’s where the powerful human stories come from. Nick Davies spent a lot of time with the people he writes about in his book. So did Roberto Saviano and David Simon. With Hood Rat , I spent a lot of time with drug addicts and gang members, talking to them face-to-face. I wanted to find our common humanity, so that the reader appreciates what they are going through and doesn’t just see them as something “other”. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . What’s also interesting about the books by Saviano, Davies and Simon – and also mine – is that to a certain extent they show the demise of newspaper journalism. In the old days journalists would be going out and reporting these stories and spending time on long investigations. This is no longer happening. It’s a sad thing because we need to get out there and find out what’s going on. In Britain today we are hearing reports about gangs grooming young girls in Rochdale, many of whom come from care homes that are owned by private equity groups. These are the kind of things that should set off alarm bells in people’s heads. Someone needs to get out there and spend time speaking to the people involved and find out the true picture. That’s why these types of books are important in the absence of that kind of journalism."