INSTEAD of kicking his heels on furlough from his job as a librarian, former Skipton man Stu Hennigan volunteered to deliver free food and medicines to the people of Leeds.

The result was this harrowing exploration of deprivation and poverty in the city.

His book Ghosts Signs - Poverty and the Pandemic, is a tour de force revealing an underworld hard to believe exists in any city in the UK.

Hennigan a former Ermysted’s Grammar School student, a published writer, poet and musician who now lives in Leeds, witnessed, “aggression, suspicion, fear and poverty” on a shocking level. It left him heartbroken and at times angry.

The six months and 3,500 miles in his car delivering aid, saw him visit some of the most disadvantaged estates in the city.

He met with every kind of reaction sometimes with steely-eyed suspicion but often with heartfelt thanks. Many people were incredulous that someone would arrive on their doorstep delivering food and medicines for free.

The book will shock and distress some readers but it was a task that Hennigan had to fulfil.

A task which saw him leave his family, wife Ania and two children, to cope during the lockdown period from March to September 2020 and seeing him arrive home in the evening, shattered and emotionally drained.

The book published by Bluemoose has already won a number of awards and been selected as one of Blackwell's best books of 2022.

It has been shortlisted in the category ‘Best Political Book by a non - parliamentarian at the 2023 Parliamentary Book Awards.

The volunteer’s original remit from Leeds City Council was to deliver food and medicine to those people who were isolating as vulnerable individuals due to Covid but word spread quickly and it became a clarion call for the poor and needy of the city.

He devotes a chapter ‘Afterwards – One Year On’ a telling indictment of the cynicism and criminality demonstrated by Prime Minster Johnson and his cronies.

Also at the head of each chapter, Hennigan, Senior Librarian for stock and reader development for Leeds Library Service, keeps the reader informed of the facts and figures that demonstrate what the country was going through during the initial months of the Pandemic.

Its an essential read for anyone who lived through those chilling months.

Ghost Signs: Poverty and the Pandemic is available at bookshops including Blackwell's, and Waterstones and also online, priced from £9.75.