‘Alberto Prunetti's scatalogical, sociological, phantasmagorical, novel Down and Out in England in Italy might have George Orwell spinning in his grave and chuckling in recognition at the kitchen workers, toilet cleaners, and children of miners and steel workers ... A deep poignancy here too.’
Anthony Cartwright, author of How I Killed Margaret Thatcher
‘Humour and sarcasm abound in Prunetti’s slim, fast-paced account, but these do not lessen the anger and poignancy of his analysis of a society in which the workers are sacrificed at the altar of profit.’
Giglioa Sulis, TLS
‘So funny and full of swagger ... a joy.’
Cash Carraway, author of Skint Estate
‘In the span of a year and a half (the period of time the author himself spent in the UK) Prunetti condenses three decades of neoliberalism, deindustrialisation, attacks on workers’ rights and their wages.’
Wu Ming 1/Luther Blissett, author of Q
‘Down and Out in England and Italy is funny, honest, and literary. Prunetti’s memoir reveals what life is really like for those in low-paid jobs around England while celebrating the bonds that exist between the have-nots. All of this and the history of bolognese too!’
Paul McVeigh, author of The Good Son
‘Alberto Prunetti is a brother to every dispossessed wage slave in the UK. This is what’s happening and it’s only getting worse. Prunetti writes like a cross between John Fante and Jason Williamson. Surreal, defiant, and very very funny.’
Howard Cunnell, author of The Painter’s Friend
‘A very sweary, grizzled old Italian Lefty … The cast of characters around him is often superbly drawn.’
Will Heaven, Mail on Sunday
‘Move over Orwell. Down and Out in England and Italy is (first word to last) the most exciting book on working-class experience, casual labour, and serious love (and cost) of book-learning I've ever read. Funny, fierce. I want to read it aloud in public.’
Tanya Shadrick, author of The Cure for Sleep
‘Increasingly imaginative, experimental, and polyphonic’
Federico Picerni, Journal of Comparative Literature and Aesthetics
‘Bitterly funny, lyrical, and often scatological … a foulmouthed, hallucinatory, and often surreal account of the contemporary landscape of class.’
John Merrick, Jacobin magazine
‘An urgent examination of class in a 21st-century context.’
Happy Magazine
‘The book has a nightmarish Lovecraftian undertone — a creative ploy to underline the unspeakable horrors that workers today face under capitalism.’
Ivan Franceschini, Made in China Journal
‘An emphasis on language, on dark humour, and critical observations makes [Down and Out in England and Italy] an enjoyable read.’
AM Robeson, Reading School Headmaster’s Bulletin
‘A working-class story full of humour, misery, and solidarity.’
Angelo Boccato, Tribune
‘If you ever thought Down and Out in Paris and London would be a much better book if it was set in Bristol, Livorno, and Dorset and rewritten by a working class Italian communist with a taste for football, scatology, and codeine linctus — and who hasn’t — then is this the one for you.’
Owen Hatherley, author of Landscapes of Communism
‘Poignant ... in the writing of his experiences, Prunetti finally finds his salvation, offering his readers some deeply uncomfortable glimpses into a world that it’s far cheerier not to contemplate too closely while tucking into that delicious pizza.’
Caroline Wyatt, Italian Riveter
‘The impetuousness and cheerfulness of the story go hand in hand with social indignation. This makes Prunetti’s novel not only unique but also extremely fun to read.’
Magnus Nilsson, editor of Working Class Literature(s)
