Confessions of a Do-Gooder - A Worm's Eye View of Social Progress 1930-1960 (Paperback)

In the Great Depression of the 1930s a young Cambridge graduate, Reg Poole, set out to try and make the world a better place. On the surface, he seemed every inch the orthodox English gentleman but beneath lay a strong appetite for radical social improvement. In Liverpool, after the Second World War, his pioneering work in community development and voluntary service, helped thousands to improve their lives and attracted national and international attention. Despite his pre-eminence, Reg was modest - not a man to recount his achievements. Only at the end of his life was he persuaded to set down his story. Written with wit and elegance, punctuated with moments of touching intimacy, it provides a precious insight into an era when Britain turned its back on brutal inequality and created a better society with a health service, education and welfare for all at its heart. In Confessions of a Do-Gooder that world, with its faults and its virtues, comes vividly to life - and casts a penetrating light on our own.