Our nation is full of people working for a better world, from the doctors and nurses of our NHS to the everyday community volunteers making our environment nicer for everyone. These people deserve a lot more praise than they usually get, and it was with this in mind that I wanted to pick up Britain’s Everyday Heroes.
Britain’s Everyday Heroes looks at thirty inspirational people from across the United Kingdom who have done extraordinary things for local people and their communities. Organised into the sub-themes of Builders, Mentors and Pathfinders, these people cover the length and breadth of the country, including Tommy MacKay’s fight against illiteracy, Dave Green the 50-year sports coach and Paul Bain, founder of a unique community for the homeless. The book is compiled and padded out by Gordon Brown, Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010.
This book is a tricky one for me, because the stories inside this book are so varied and very inspiring, with all sorts of people doing the very best for themselves and their communities, often with no reward other than the knowledge they are making other’s lives better. And this is very commendable, and getting to appreciate unsung heroes is something we should all aspire to do as much as possible in our lives. However, you may be wondering how it was that from across the nation these specific people had been selected, and sadly, our esteemed author makes this clear.
In the majority of stories told, part of the solution to the identified issues, or things that have occurred as a result of these ground-breaking achievements, are attributed to the help of the British government, which I’m not opposed to – I think the government does help out a lot of people with a lot of programmes they have set up. However, considering that the government at this time was not only one which his party formed, but was one that he himself as Chancellor of the Exchequer played a significant role in. Furthermore, the book is sprinkled with his own interpretation of the way his government has been key in helping these schemes to flourish or grow further. The book also ends with the longest section in the entire publication written by Brown basically hailing his government, and by extension his own, work. A self-congratulatory ode which is extremely out of place in a book entitled Britain’s Everyday Heroes.
This book is a lovely exploration into the stories of people working so hard every day for their communities and local people, but has unfortunately been twisted and warped into what, at times, feels like a party-political broadcast for its author. This book needn’t have anything to do with the former Prime Minister and would be a much nicer read without his influence.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
Britain’s Everyday Heroes (ISBN: 978-1-84596-307-1) was published in 2007
