CLH Book Group 📚 Anywhere but Here by Nicola Kelly

April's book: Anywhere but Here: How Britain's Broken Asylum System Fails us All by Nicola Kelly

What is it like to arrive on our shores with nothing and be pushed to the margins of society?
Who stands to gain from an asylum system that is intentionally hostile?
Anywhere But Here is a powerful exposé of Britain’s broken asylum system and how it fails us all.
Each year tens of thousands of people risk their lives to cross the Channel in small boats hoping to find safety in Britain. Yet the very system designed to protect them has all but collapsed.
With unique and unparalleled access, award-winning journalist and former Home Office insider Nicola Kelly takes us behind the scenes of the small boats crisis for the first time.
We follow the under-resourced coastguard overseeing search and rescue operations in the Channel. The decision-makers hired from McDonald’s and Aldi to conduct ‘life and death’ asylum interviews. The immigration barristers securing last-minute reprieves for deportees who narrowly escaped death. And we step inside the Home Office corridors as ministers and advisors respond to emerging crises and scandals, from Windrush to the Rwanda plan.

At its heart are the stories of war-torn arrivals, lone teenagers and trafficked women attempting to settle in cities, towns and villages across the UK. We travel to meet them, exploring where they have fled from and why, and the response of local communities to their new neighbours.

Situated on the beaches and the ports, in the hotels, the courtrooms and the detention centres where the futures of those affected unfold, this is a searing investigation into one of the most urgent issues and shocking injustices of our time.

The meeting starts at 7:30. After starting the group, we will break up into small groups. Those familiar with the CLH Book Group meeting know how this works: in each group we take turns introducing ourselves and giving our 1 minute thoughts on the book. It's important not to go over a minute and not to interrupt other people's minute so that everyone gets a chance to participate. After this first round, each group discusses for another 20 minutes or so.

We then shuffle the groups so as to talk to as many different people as possible and in the new groups repeat our introductions and 1 minute thoughts. We'll do this a couple of times before coming all together at the end in one last big group.

While we are very social and welcoming, the book group's primary focus is on discussing books. Feel free to turn up if you haven't managed to finish this month's book but note that the group works best when we have all read at least half of the book and are prepared to share our opinions.

***

£3 per person to attend. If it's your first time, come and try us out for free!
If you prefer, you can pay online, by clicking here.

We encourage dialogue, debate and sharing of information on our site but ask people to keep their comments cordial. Any views expressed here are those of the individual posting them and may not reflect those of CLH.