I'll Die After Bingo: My unlikely life as a care home assistant

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So they had to pretend the deceased was unwell and remove her from the lounge before the child realised what had happened. He also admits it scratched his itch for rebellion against the dehumanising rules imposed by managers focused on the “business-over-welfare model of profit extraction”, expecting better treatment for self-funding residents than those receiving government support.

The references to academic books on the subject and his philosopising went over my head and I was not sure they were not just there to make us realise how well read and intellectual he was as opposed to the majority of care home workers . Resistant to viewing his charges in the soft focus tones of the home’s brochures, Lonergan admits that he’s scanned the communal area of the home and asked himself: “How many of these old men have beaten their wives? I tip my hat to Pope and all the Popes working hard and wiping all the arses that people like me wince at.When friends ask me what to read next, I will be suggesting this book until they’ve all read it too and passed it on. And Hannah Weatherill, acting head of media rights with Penguin Random House, said: ‘Pope’s memoir about his work as a carer is extraordinary – he captures the personalities of the residents, their families, and his colleagues in all their complexity with incredible empathy and humour. I was also really happy to find references of feminism, critics of capitalism and I would say socialism but not sure how the author identifies. At the same time, Lonergan rails against a social and political system that underfunds and undervalues care work and the people who do it.

In the creative industries (ergh) cultivating relationships is really important - and luckily Expectation is full of the nicest, most insightful and talented 'TV people' you'll ever find. Hats off also to him for his dedication in working this broken system, and I'm sure than many of the residents were that much the better because of him. Unfortunately I found this book disappointing and it was more about the authors opinions on the care system.

He reminds us funding for social care is contingent on the NHS clearing the Covid backlog – only then will funding trickle down to elderly care. Having visited a range of hospitals, respite care places and care homes in recent years for my dad, plus having had my own amusing catheter experiences in hospital stays of my own, I'm kind of inured to the various icky bodily topics involved when people are not capable of caring for themselves. When he slipped from “gentle repartee” into more risqué comedy, he was met with “raucous, delinquent laughter from the elders”.

So, I preferred some aspects of this book to others, but it is undeniably an important addition to the existing literature on social care. I wish Pope a major success with this polemic on the current state of some of the private health care sector.

This book is brilliant - an amazing mix of dedication, empathy, laughs-out-loud and outrage about how the current government has abandoned the care system for elderly people to hedge funders and others who just want to make money out of the vulnerable. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. We are more than our bodies, Lonergan shows, and good care helps people to maintain their dignity when their physical abilities are dwindling.