Underdogs by Louise Powell review – a powerful debut with plenty of northern soul

A bereaved father and son bond over greyhound racing in an east Durham town in terminal decline The adjoining villages of Easington and Easington Colliery in the coalfields of east Durham make the perfect case study of the shift from England’s industrial boomtime to terminal decline. Twenty miles from a major town or city, they’ve been left to languish ever since Thatcher went to war with the industry that made them. If you want to understand why the white working class feel abandoned today, ...

By Benjamin Myers