Every Kind of People: A Journey into the Heart of Care Work

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The first-of-its-kind memoir of a home care worker, told through her encounters with the people she cares for. Kate never expected to become a home care worker. But when she left her senior role in the NHS, burnt-out and disheartened, she thought caring for people in their own homes would be a simpler job. Despite being determined not to become too involved with her 'customers', she soon found herself developing firm friendships, forging deep connections and bearing witness to the extraordinary drama to be found in ordinary lives. With energy, compassion and clarity, her memoir gives an astonishing insight into this unsung - and often maligned - profession, and into the hidden lives of the housebound and infirm. From Beryl who screams like a banshee whenever Kate tries to wash her, but collapses in giggles when her toes are tickled, to bawdy Mr Radbert who 'promised to give me his car when he can remember where he left it'. Every Kind of People is clear-eyed about the challenges facing the NHS and the care system. But it is above all a celebration of humanity and of the life-changing impact of caring, on those who offer it and those who receive it.

Reviews

What comes through most in the book is the privilege of intimacy that comes from caring, the close relationships and love * Guardian *
Written with compassion, candour, and often hilarity * Radio Times *
In a first of its kind, here is a memoir of a home care worker: a deeply compelling story of one of the most unsung professions in the UK, brimming with anecdotes to make you both laugh and cry. A vital book * inews, The Best New Books to Read in October *
An extraordinary account of what it is to care for others, both beautiful and painful to read. This book is a compassionate invitation to get up close to the human condition and those who attend to it * Dr Gwen Adshead, author of The Devil You Know *
Every Kind of People talks about what its actually like to be a carer: its full of love and full of warmth. * AdamRutherford *
Every Kind of People is not just essential reading for anyone curious about the realities of care work in this country; its also the work of a natural storyteller, and a book full of empathy, humour, and - yes - care. All kinds of brilliant * Jon McGregor, author of Lean Fall Stand *
This is an extraordinary and important book that will make you laugh, cry, admire and despair in equal measure. Beautifully written, it is both heart-warming and inspiring, but also left me with deep anger and puzzlement that care work can be so demeaned as low skill by our political leaders. How can a decent society so undervalue such difficult, challenging, and important work Every Kind of People is a wonderful achievement * David Haslam *
Marvellously life-affirming and utterly humbling * Caroline Sanderson, The Bookseller, Editor's Choice *
This is a fantastic and important book. It reads like a novel, complete with vivid characters, humour and tragedy. Above all, it is an insight into the hidden life of a care worker. I was lost in admiration * Tom Shakespeare *
I am in love with Kate's storytelling, her ability to see the person and her fabulous, dry humour. This is a book about caring, and it's also a book about being in love with humanity * Kathryn Mannix, author of With the End in Mind *

Author Bio

Every Kind of People is Kathryn Faulke's first book. She was runner-up in the Wasafiri International New Writing Prize in 2020 and in 2021 she won the Mslexia Memoir Prize for an earlier version of Every Kind of People. She has now moved out of London but continues to work in care in the South East of England.