Below the Breadline

Book excerpt: A poignant and brilliant account of trying to live in Britain today on the minimum wage - £4.10 an hour Fran Abrams was commissioned by the Guardian to work as a night cleaner at the Savoy - living on (or as it turned out - below) the minimum wage. A short version of that experience appeared in the paper in January 2002. For Profile, she spent a month living on (in fact below) the minimum wage in South Yorkshire working in a pickle factory and then another month in Scotland working as a care assistant. In the tradition of George Orwell_s Down & Out in London & Paris, this book shows what it is like to try to live on £4.10 an hour. Where can you live? What can you afford to eat? Or do in the evening? What are the jobs - and the workmates and bosses like? This book, in entertaining prose, sympathetic portraits and a telling eye for detail reveals all - including the extraordinary differences across the length of Britain.