An enjoyable, insightful read. Far from being judgmental, Nick Pettigrew describes what he's experienced with a remarkable sense of humour that he directs towards himself as much as towards other people. His book shows that absurdity is not the prerogative of people who engage in anti-social behaviour, but very often that of the politics which regiment our lives in the first place.

An interesting read but more about the failings of local council than a real drama. Clearly not as interesting as others in the same vein (prison officers, nurses etc)

This is a very well-written book, a diary account of a year working as an antisocial behaviour office at the council. Both funny and incredibly sad.

This book gives you the insight of what life is really like outside our pretty standard lives and it makes me realise I am lucky in where I live and what life I have.

What an insightful, witty, dark and eye opening read. Once I had started this book I knew I was going to find it hard putting it down. This memoir of an Anti-social behavioural officer really opens your eyes to what they have to deal with, at times it can be incredibly heart breaking at times it will make you feel angry, I know I felt a great deal of compassion whilst reading this book. The humour and wit throughout is just superb and always in the right places! I really thought it added to the book.

I really hope there will be more to come from Nick Pettigrew I thoroughly enjoyed this book from start to finish.

A great insight into a job I previously didn't know much about. Really highlights the issues in an empathatic way. Defiinitely recommended.

Thank you to the publishers for sending me this book. I have happily recommended it already to customers.

Nick Pettigrew gives us a great insight into his job and if you are reading this review, you’ll be happy to know I no longer think ASBO is still a thing.

Given the subject matter Nick Pettigrew has written this with a brilliantly cynical and superb sense of humour. I guess if you don’t laugh you’d cry?

This book works through the year month by month showing us the immense caseloads, the infuriating people, and the impact it has on his everyday life.

I will be honest and say that the people we meet within these pages has burst my bubble on what that part of society is actually like. It is peppered with poignant accounts of victims of austerity. I take my hat off to any Anti Social Behaviour Officer and also their neighbours.

This is a book you will not regret reading and it will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book.

A great book which gave a true insight into the world of Anti Social Behaviour Officers. We all know what an ASB order is but this book was great insight in to how they become a reality. Often very funny and also often incredibly sad. A very well written, witty book written in with a lot of dark humour (my favourite) which dealt with some trivial and a lot of hard hitting subjects.

I'd requested this as it was supposed to be like This is Going to Hurt (it's not really) and decided to read it after applying to the Met (for research?) The morning after I finished it they put out a recruitment hold until next year! This book is easy to read and interesting. Pettigrew seems to have genuine empathy with his charges. He also sounds like an awful employee, failing to work at pace, drinking at lunch and staring into space, so I'm pleased for both sides that he's not doing it any more! Probably a better comparison is with Diary of a Bookseller, this is more a discussion of the people that he meets than himself or the processes he uses. Pettigrew takes a great deal of care to outline the work of ASB officers, social workers, health care, policing and the courts, and to interrogate what does and does not work. This was oddly reassuring, as the legal systems do seem to proceed and prove useful to him on most occasions. Genuinely distressed people get help. Where the book is sad is primarily in stories about long term mental ill health and addiction, and the author does well to recognise that there are no easy solutions, and it is very sad. What did surprise me was that I didn't realise that ASB officers only worked in social housing, this community resource is not available nationwide. With increasing numbers of vulnerable people living in private lets this is a scary thought, and I am grateful that this book taught me that.

I wanted to read this book because I started a while back reading all of the Doctor diaries. I thought it would be interesting to venture in to another area that really is relatively unknown in any depth and I’m glad I did. I found this book not only interesting but funny mixed with desperately sad- who knew that was a thing! It was well written and gives a great insight in to the reality of what people like Nick go through to carry out this job. I would definitely recommend the book- in fact I have already told a few people to look out for it.

The success of Adam Kay’s “This Is Going To Hurt” (more than a year topping most book charts, TV series etc) has had publishers eagerly looking out for a successor, and the 14 way auction for the rights to “Anti-Social” suggests they thought they had found one.

You can see why. Author Nick Pettigrew was a 15 year veteran Anti-Social Behaviour Officer, a stand-up comedian with two Edinburgh Festival shows behind him and published in the Daily Telegraphy the Daily Mash. Ker-ching.

Pettigrew tries to tread a tightrope between looking for laughs in the absurdity of his day to day case load, and the innate misery and anguish that he and so many of his clients face. Unfortunately for my money he mostly falls off. So often, it just feels he’s trying too hard to milk laughs out of something that in so many respects just isn’t funny, relying on metaphors that feel strained and a distraction.

Which is a shame, because when not crowbarring in gags, Pettigrew offers up some erudite and powerful analysis of just how miserable life for some of the most disadvantaged in the UK has become. His explanations of why drug selling is such a compelling proposition (one he almost took up) stripped of the usual media rhetoric is highly illuminating. The monumental dysfunctionality of some peoples lives and the absence of the necessary joined up, multi-agency solutions is well evidenced, but not that rib tickling. There’s minimal insight given to others in Pettigrew’s professional orbit. There’s a brief but well penned tribute to a colleague whose knowledge and insight is much missed, but beyond that there’s nothing other than a rather vapid stationery loving new recruit who adds little to proceedings.

Pettigrew charts his own mental health issues throughout the book, and in a manner very similar to “Going To Hurt” closes on a case that finally gave him the resolve to quit. Without seeking to diminish the impact the case had on him, there seems to have been some dramatic license in use. The Bookseller website reported that publisher Century signed him whilst he was still working as an ASB Officer with the manuscript attributed to “Anonymous” for his protection. The license seemingly taken around such a pivotal element of the book makes you wonder just how much of the rest has been “polished”.

Ultimately, it’s a valuable read, educational even. But it’s likely to disappoint anyone looking for a Kay like laugh.

I really enjoyed this! Along the lines of Adam Kay's Diary this offered an insight into the ASB officers world. A job, as a criminology graduate, that still interests me. I had no idea how much ground the officers work covered and what an interesting and diverse role it was! No spoilers but obviously the job isn't at all as you see on TV shows. Interesting to get a real account by a real person! Will definitely eb recommending this to customers interested in the secret barrister and the likes.

Read and reviewed in exchange for a free copy from NetGalley. 'Anti-Social' was an enjoyable read, which provided real humour, insight and honesty into this author's work. I generally enjoy memoirs of this kind, and it was nice to have one which deviated from the more common medical memoir.

After reading Anti-Social I was left with the same senses of frustration and desperation with the system and society portrayed by the author in the book. A gritty look at life, class and criminality.

TW for the book: Mental Health, Alcohol use, Drug Use, and general anti-social behaviour. Please bear in mind these are just the main triggers, there are a number of others throughout the book.   

The book is certainly an eye-opener in many different ways, as an antisocial behaviour officer for a housing association within England Nick manages issues on a number of different estates when residents call in to report an issue.

The estate’s Nick manages, as with all housing estates, have a mixture of all kinds of people from all different backgrounds, each with their own set of issues. While it would seem Nick does not receive complaints from absolutely everyone on the estate they certainly have their fair share of problems. 

Two of the most predominant problems Nick deals with are drugs and noise, while it may seem obvious these are the typical issues the job would entail, it is interesting to find out at least some of solutions to them. Nick was in court a fair number of times throughout the year but most of his time was spent either in the community dealing with people directly or within the community speaking to people.

Drugs are a problem all over the country not just on council estates but the effects of the issues they cause are felt in its full effect in these environments. A drug dealer can make a fortune on estates and destroy lives in the process, the book demonstrates this perfectly

did enjoy the book but I had a few issues with it, the main being the language used in some instances such as ‘human garbage’ to describe people that lived on the estate which is unnecessary and frankly unhelpful. 

At the end of the book the author makes comments on how he doesn’t think awareness of mental health issues is the answer to the current mental health crisis, while I don’t think awareness is the full answer I do think it helps with the problem. The book as with many others does highlight the failings of the mental health services within England. 

Spoiler alert & trigger warnings First I would like to point out I don’t do spoiler alerts unless I think it is important, here I think it is. Throughout the book Nick struggles with his own mental health, it would seem the work he is doing is contributing to the stress and struggles he is having. While we will never really know if there are other contributing factors his work and workplace certainly seem to be causing stress. Additionally, Nick often mentions using alcohol as a way of coping after the day

With thanks to the author and the publisher for this ARC, in exchange for this an honest review

I have mixed feelings about this book. Overall, it was interesting, especially as its about a job and a world that I have no experience of, so being able to get a glimpse into the life of Pettigrew and that of the people he interacts with was a really nice new angle. But on the other hand, the book has no discernible plot, which made it hard to hold my interest. I know, I know - it's non fiction so there's not a 'plot' as such, but there's nothing that kind of hooks me in to keep me reading. Once i got through a few chapters/months, I kind of felt like i could just open the book at any new month or even page and start from there - it got very samey and kind of boring to read.

Generally, when I've been drawn in by non-fiction, either the author is going through some kind of personal journey over the months so I follow along to see their progression, or each chapter is standalone/focuses on one specific topic, so in order to absorb it all, i need to read the lot. Here, neither applied. Each chapter was very similar to the previous with no real themes, and as for personal growth, we saw little bits where Pettigrew had a bad performance review, or the "password" of the month was something to do with resignation, but its not enough to make me the reader feel anything for him as a character.

Overall, the writing isn't bad, the subject matter is interesting but the problem is just the way it's organised and the way it reads and for that unfortunately I can't give this a high review.

A memoir from an Anti-Social behaviour officer. Some really funny memories and written in a humourous way. If you like the whole type of books taken from people’s various jobs then this is definitely one for you. This had me chuckling to myself in public at times.

An easy fast paced read which is funny and informative

Similar to The Secret Barrister, this book follows an Anti-Social Behaviour (ASB) officer in an inner city for a year. Very readable this should make you laugh and cry (or at least hurt) in equal measure as the author records tenants and the various behaviours and challenges that cause them to come to the attention of the ASB team. Like The Secret Barrister this should leave you questioning society and how people are treated.

I quite enjoyed this book. Nick works in antisocial behaviour on housing estates. The book is basically a year in his working life. Usually these kind of biography usually spend a lot of time talking about their own lives or the poor budgets of the establishments. That can sometimes bore me to tears but this book explored lots of different people, told many stories about how each kind of awful resident can have such an impact on sometimes the whole housing estate. I liked the fact that of most of them you found out what happened to them. A good and interesting read.

Anti-Social is a brilliantly perceptive and darkly comedic memoir of a disgruntled and desparate Anti-Social Behavior officer working for housing estates in London. Nick Pettigrew shares a year's worth of stories and annecdotes from his often difficult, frantic and thankless role, highlighting the need for social care and the pressures it faces to thrive without adequate funding and support.

This book was incredibly insightful, and managed to navigate a narrow balance between sensitivity and humour. There were moments that could be seen to be in bad taste, a side effect of writing so starkly about vulnerable people in society, but I feel that for the most part this was handled well. Pettigrew's own clear concern for the people he supports and the passion he brings to discussing the issues that surround social housing were apparent throughout.

I'll be recommending this book to anyone who will listen - one of my top non-fiction reads of 2020.