OUT OCTOBER 1st
The crisis of care exposed by Covid-19 has deep historical roots. For centuries the caring labours of women have been taken for granted and care work has been underpaid; its values disregarded. Over five years, Madeleine Bunting travelled the country, speaking to charity workers, doctors, social workers, in-home carers, nurses and other caregivers to explore the value and humanity of care. She finds remarkable stories, in GP surgeries, in end-of-life teams and in work undertaken by parents for their disabled children, that conjure a different way of imagining our society and the connections between us. Labours of Love is a vital portrait of our nation and a clarion call for change.
‘Labours of Love is a masterpiece. Humane, perceptive, honest, compassionate, wide-ranging, and erudite, it is a profound inquiry into the most important social issue of our time’
Raymond Tallis
'Moving, forensic and historically grounded. Labours of Love would have been timely at any point, but never more so than in the epoch-defining circumstances of 2020 as we seek at last to redefine our values’
David Kynaston
‘An urgent, searching and vital overview of the landscape of care, published as societies everywhere are waking up to the true value of caring work. Madeleine Bunting has spent five years talking with parents and therapists, doctors and nurses, sons and daughters. The perspectives she gathers are sometimes angry, often tender, always illuminating’
Gavin Francis
'Labours of Love arrives at a perfect time: the world seems to have rediscovered the essential importance of care – but unfortunately is still very bad at valuing and resourcing it. Bunting’s terrific book can help change that. It cannot be ignored’
Mariana Mazzucato