Listen free for 30 days

Listen with offer

  • Lowborn

  • Growing Up, Getting Away and Returning to Britain’s Poorest Towns
  • By: Kerry Hudson
  • Narrated by: Kerry Hudson
  • Length: 8 hrs and 14 mins
  • 4.6 out of 5 stars (423 ratings)
Offer ends May 1st, 2024 11:59PM GMT. Terms and conditions apply.
£7.99/month after 3 months. Renews automatically.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Lowborn cover art

Lowborn

By: Kerry Hudson
Narrated by: Kerry Hudson
Get this deal Try for £0.00

Pay £99p/month. After 3 months pay £7.99/month. Renews automatically. See terms for eligibility.

£7.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £12.99

Buy Now for £12.99

Pay using card ending in
By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file. Please see our Privacy Notice, Cookies Notice and Interest-based Ads Notice.

Listeners also enjoyed...

The Windrush Betrayal cover art
Belonging cover art
Maya Angelou: The Autobiographies cover art
Alexander McQueen: Blood Beneath the Skin cover art
HELP cover art
Trouble cover art
The Funny Thing About Death... cover art
Who Do You Love cover art
The Loudness of Unsaid Things cover art
Paper Cup cover art
The Woman Who Fooled the World cover art
Ever After cover art
Drinking Custard cover art
Everyday Kindness cover art
Nothing Left Unsaid cover art
Looking for Eliza cover art

Summary

Random House presents the audiobook edition of Lowborn by Kerry Hudson.

What does it really mean to be poor in Britain today? A prizewinning novelist revisits her childhood and some of the country's most deprived towns


'When every day of your life you have been told you have nothing of value to offer, that you are worth nothing to society, can you ever escape that sense of being ‘lowborn’ no matter how far you’ve come?’

Kerry Hudson is proudly working class but she was never proudly poor. The poverty she grew up in was all-encompassing, grinding and often dehumanising. Always on the move with her single mother, Kerry attended nine primary schools and five secondaries, living in B&Bs and council flats. She scores eight out of ten on the Adverse Childhood Experiences measure of childhood trauma.

Twenty years later, Kerry’s life is unrecognisable. She’s a prizewinning novelist who has travelled the world. She has a secure home, a loving partner and access to art, music, film and books. But she often finds herself looking over her shoulder, caught somehow between two worlds.

Lowborn is Kerry’s exploration of where she came from, revisiting the towns she grew up in to try to discover what being poor really means in Britain today and whether anything has changed. She also journeys into the hardest regions of her own childhood, because sometimes in order to move forwards we first have to look back.

©2019 Kerry Hudson (P)2019 Random House Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"I loved Lowborn.... A powerful exploration of Hudson's working-class childhood and its legacy." (David Nicholls, author of One Day)

"Elegant, compassionate and powerful...tells the hidden story of what it means to be poor in Britain today." (Charlotte Heathcote)

"Compelling, fascinating and well-written, undeniably grim but peppered with humour and tenderness...Hudson demonstrates that only by lifting whole communities out of poverty...can we hope to avoid consigning children and young people like her – vulnerable and blameless – to the worst of lives." (Kit de Waal)

What listeners say about Lowborn

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    326
  • 4 Stars
    66
  • 3 Stars
    17
  • 2 Stars
    5
  • 1 Stars
    9
Performance
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    308
  • 4 Stars
    39
  • 3 Stars
    16
  • 2 Stars
    6
  • 1 Stars
    7
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    291
  • 4 Stars
    53
  • 3 Stars
    19
  • 2 Stars
    2
  • 1 Stars
    8

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Everyone should hear or read this.

beautifully written in a way that seeks no sympathy but speaks honestly and with good grace. Growing up in poverty in the 70's held many a familiar tale for me however the book illustrated a gaping, terrifying difference. We had permanence of a decent social housing where the standards were maintained to a decent enough leave. Kerry Hudson if you see this, hat off to you for being brave enough to share your story. I hope your voice reaches far and wide.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

10 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Emotional and involving

What a beautiful story! Could not get enough of it and listened the whole thing in 2 days.
It made me widen my views on certain issues, weep and laugh and is so interesting and involving. Great job. Thanks!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

7 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Wonderful storytelling account of a life being lived

I have loved all Kerry’ Hudson’s books. This is incredible. Her own story of past, present and future...raw and painful and a call to action. Humanising poverty, and the devastation of growing up poor in Britain. But it is a hopeful book if we don’t ignore our own responsibilities.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

6 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Jo
  • 20-05-19

outstanding

absolutely outstanding, thought provoking and memory jogging. No matter what class you identify with you Should read this book.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Superb.

Such a gently written and beautifully narrated autobiography about such a rough and neglected childhood. My heart ached.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Go Kerry Hudson!

I’ve just finished this and all the hairs on my arms, and strings of my heart are vibrating. This is so much more than a memoir. This is exploring a personal history to speak truth to those in power, to do good, to affect change. The prose is breathtaking & the author’s delivery absolutely beautiful. A quiet, strong resonant voice for those who would be kept down, silenced, shamed & bullied into perpetual submission and self-sabotage. Riveting, pertinent and profound.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Excellent

If this book doesn't make you think about the reasons for and the effects of poverty then you have not listened properly. Coming from a poor and poverty stricken background I've been waiting for a book like this which describes the problems girls and women ( most authors reflecting on their poor backgrounds are male) are faced with. Every member of Parliament should read this book to show how much damage they are doing to the lives of people.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Did I miss the point?

Without doubt the author had a harrowing story to tell but it was harrowing, in my opinion as a direct result of her mum’s parenting skills. We were left in the dark about much of the details of this area of her life and instead told about the results of poor parental choices with the state and Kerry often picking up the costs of her mother dropping everything in order to chase a man who promised nothing for his daughter and step daughter.
Austerity was/is a hideous policy but along with Kerry’s story I wanted to read why her mum felt it was ok to behave in the way she did… with too many unanswered questions I could only give it a poor rating.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

interesting

memorable book. kerry has mannaged to come out the other side and achieve more than most.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Mandatory reading

This book had a profound effect on me and I know I’ll think about it for years to come. Kerry’s writing transports you and you can feel her experience through it. It’s an absolute education in poverty that everyone should read.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful