Show Me the Bodies

WINNER OF THE ORWELL PRIZE FOR POLITICAL WRITING 2023. 'Never before, in years of reviewing books about buildings, has one brought me to tears. This one did. ' Rowan Moore, Observer. Book of the Week. On 14 June 2017, a 24-storey block of flats went up in flames. The fire climbed up cladding as flammable as solid petrol. Fire doors failed to self-close. No alarm rang out to warn sleeping residents. As smoke seeped into their homes, all were told to 'stay put'. Many did - and they died. It was a tragedy decades in the making. In this fully updated edition, Peter Apps meticulously exposes how a steady stream of deregulation, corporate greed and institutional indifference caused a tragedy. Here is the story of a grieving community forsaken by our government, a community still waiting for justice, ten years on. 'Enormously important. A painstaking chronicle of an entirely avoidable tragedy, its aftermath and its causes. ' JAMES O'BRIEN. 'Show Me the Bodies. will never leave the mind of anyone who reads it. ' GUARDIAN. 'A searing indictment of the construction industry and regulators. The book that follows reads like a prosecution, meticulous and fierce. ' THE TIMES.