This book is about Bristol’s changing face. Written by an author who grew up in the heart of Bristol’s ghetto, Palmer sheds light on the supposed ‘renovation’ that Bristol’s poorer quarters have been undergoing. Growing up in Easton’s neighbouring Whitehall, he would get into fights, be beaten up, be robbed at the end of a gun barrel, and experience the rough and ready upbringing that youths in these areas face the country over.

After returning from university, however, he began to hear that Easton and similarly poor areas like St Pauls and Bedminster were ‘up and coming’. To get to the bottom of this claim, Palmer interviews countless people and draws on much research to reveal the shocking reality that faces the type of people he grew up with: rent hikes, snobbery, institutional racism, homelessness, and removal from the communities they once loved.