A Bad Decade for Good People

A fiercely hopeful novel about family, sexuality, grief and how we as individuals can rediscover our political agency in the face of continued uncertainty. Brighton, 2016. Laurie wears the scar given to her by a policeman’ s baton as a mark of pride among her circle of bright young activists. Her conscionable but sensitive brother George should be a part of that circle, until the appearance of enigmatic Spanish migrant Antonio threatens to divert him from his sister’ s world of marches and moral accountability. As the clouds gather over Brighton and the EU referendum accelerates both Laurie’ s political zeal and Antonio’ s ambiguous desires, George is faced with the fact that their city of parties and protests is suddenly a place where the possibility of saving the world – as well as the people around him – is in jeopardy of being lost forever. At once a letter of support to everyone disillusioned by British politics, and a deeply perceptive snapshot of modern relationships, A Bad Decade for Good People is a captivating state-of-the-nation tale that begs the question: when it feels like the world is falling apart, how do you keep those you love from doing the same?

Joe Bedford is an award-winning author from Doncaster, UK. His short fiction has been published widely, appearing in Litro, Structo, MIR Online and elsewhere, as well as being featured in several anthologies including The Brighton Prize Anthology. Over the past ten years, he has been longlisted and shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, while being highly commended for the Manchester Fiction Prize and awarded first prize for Waterstones’ sophomore Write and Raise competition.