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Jem Bartholomew is an award-winning freelance reporter, with a focus on narrative nonfiction stories about poverty and social exclusion.
Portrait by Sophie Davidson ©
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Jem Bartholomew is an award-winning freelance reporter, with a focus on narrative nonfiction stories about poverty and social exclusion.
Portrait by Sophie Davidson ©
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Broke: Fixing Britain’s Poverty Crisis
Jem recently reported two chapters for the book Broke, edited by Tom Clark and published by Biteback in 2023.
Extracts:
Chapter One — Uprooted: No place like home (London Review Bookshop)
Chapter Eight — Atomised, but not alone: Work and resistance in the gig economy (Prospect Magazine)
Praise for Broke:
“An important account of a real emergency and a moral crisis we ignore at our peril.” — Gordon Brown, former UK prime minister
Book of the week — London Review Bookshop
“Broke shows the human side of the shameful statistical record of destitution that austerity and the current cost-of-living crisis has brought to millions of Britons.” — New Statesman
“A programme for government, needed urgently ... The power is in the prose.” — Prospect Magazine
“Drawing on the testimony of those trapped in the quicksand of poverty, Broke is a wake-up call for anyone who still thinks Britain is a fair or ‘civilised’ country.” — Darren McGarvey, Orwell Prize-winner and author of Poverty Safari
“A devastating portrait of modern poverty, Broke is urgently reported and beautifully written, with humane and empathetic accounts of what it feels like to be caught in a 21st-century poverty trap. This collection of essays sets out in disturbing detail the true impact of a decade of austerity policies and should be required reading for politicians and policymakers.” — Amelia Gentleman, Guardian journalist and author of The Windrush Betrayal
“I grew up at a time when poverty was rife but governments of right and left were committed to its eradication. Tom Clark conducts an orchestra of experts to demonstrate that poverty is rife once again and the only thing that’s been eradicated is government’s determination to deal with it.” — Alan Johnson, former UK home secretary
“We often find it uncomfortable to listen to the voices of those who struggle without enough. Broke refuses us the consolation of false innocence and shows us what sort of society we have become. We should be ashamed but also take heart from the steadfastness, solidarity and resistance revealed.” — Giles Fraser, panellist of BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze
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©2023 Biteback
Jem recently reported two chapters for the book Broke, edited by Tom Clark and published by Biteback in 2023.
Extracts:
Chapter One — Uprooted: No place like home (London Review Bookshop)
Chapter Eight — Atomised, but not alone: Work and resistance in the gig economy (Prospect Magazine)
Praise for Broke:
“An important account of a real emergency and a moral crisis we ignore at our peril.” — Gordon Brown, former UK prime minister
Book of the week — London Review Bookshop
“Broke shows the human side of the shameful statistical record of destitution that austerity and the current cost-of-living crisis has brought to millions of Britons.” — New Statesman
“A programme for government, needed urgently ... The power is in the prose.” — Prospect Magazine
“Drawing on the testimony of those trapped in the quicksand of poverty, Broke is a wake-up call for anyone who still thinks Britain is a fair or ‘civilised’ country.” — Darren McGarvey, Orwell Prize-winner and author of Poverty Safari
“A devastating portrait of modern poverty, Broke is urgently reported and beautifully written, with humane and empathetic accounts of what it feels like to be caught in a 21st-century poverty trap. This collection of essays sets out in disturbing detail the true impact of a decade of austerity policies and should be required reading for politicians and policymakers.” — Amelia Gentleman, Guardian journalist and author of The Windrush Betrayal
“I grew up at a time when poverty was rife but governments of right and left were committed to its eradication. Tom Clark conducts an orchestra of experts to demonstrate that poverty is rife once again and the only thing that’s been eradicated is government’s determination to deal with it.” — Alan Johnson, former UK home secretary
“We often find it uncomfortable to listen to the voices of those who struggle without enough. Broke refuses us the consolation of false innocence and shows us what sort of society we have become. We should be ashamed but also take heart from the steadfastness, solidarity and resistance revealed.” — Giles Fraser, panellist of BBC Radio 4’s Moral Maze
©2023 Biteback