Introduction

Abstract

As the final credits rolled, film director Ken Loach made his way to the front of the cinema to respond to audience questions. His film, The Spirit of ’45, had captured the public determination and political will that had built Britain’s welfare state. Someone sitting near me asked Ken about his motivation for film-making. I fumbled in my handbag, grabbed a pen and immediately copied down his answer on the inside cover of a notebook: I see it as my job to make pictures of the world, to share them with other people, hoping they might better understand their own lives, and our place within the world that little bit better. Here was a very simple explanation for the book I wanted to write. I was inspired to follow my methodological instinct and to paint pictures of the world, not with moving images but with words, the words of homecare workers.