Danny Dorling | Seven Children: Inequality and Britain’s Next Generation

In Seven Children, Danny Dorling, Professor of Geography at the University of Oxford, offers a highly original exploration of inequality and hope through the lens of seven ‘typical’ children. Drawing from millions of statistics, he constructs these children as symbols of the average experience, representing the full spectrum of parental income in the UK, from the poorest to the wealthiest.

Born in 2018, during a time when the UK faced its worst inequality since the Great Depression, these children turned five in 2023, amidst a devastating cost-of-living crisis. Despite the rapid rise in child poverty and the country’s growing social divide, Dorling’s immersive and thought-provoking book reveals that hope can still endure.

Through these seven children, Seven Children explores the complex issues affecting post-pandemic Britain, from the overlooked middle to the extremes of wealth and deprivation. Dorling challenges us to think beyond the narratives of the superrich and the most deprived, asking critical questions about what life is like for the majority of British children, and how we can reverse the damaging trends affecting their future.

In conversation with Melissa Benn