Post-it Notes from Underground

by Simon Crump

Simon's circumstances mean he takes a minimum wage job cleaning a factory. Every morning the cleaning team are left motivational notes by the supervisor. People and especially management only see them as cleaners, but when Simon appears in a national newspaper their views change. It is a story of class, solidarity, kindness and comradeship where it is not the job you have that defines you but how you treat others that does.

Genres: Book Club

122 pages, Hardcover

Published June 25, 2026

Reviews

[Ben Thomas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book that challenges your preconceived ideas of how other people think, but mirrors the wandering of a mind that doesn’t need to concentrate on a job in hand because it is repetitive and relatively simple. Ask yourself, what do you think about as you mow the lawn or wash up?

One minute you’re smiling at the bizarre, mainly nonsensical notes that ‘magically’ appear in the underground cleaner’s bunker, the next you are pondering the inner feelings of the author’s tragic loss, his memories of a prior life’s steadfast determination to save Sheffield trees from the chainsaw (to properly understand that you need to read Persons Unknown: The Battle for Sheffield’s Street Trees), why he ended up in A&E and how circumstances lead up to him helping to clean the offices and factory floor of an electronics company post COVID.

I started reading this in an NHS pain clinic waiting room having given someone a lift there. I’m convinced others, unaware of my circumstances, believed I must have been there under a false pretext and was swinging the lead as I chortled away at the description of fellow workers and the seemingly ridiculous occupants of the offices they were cleaning.

COVID was a strange time for many of us, and as the restrictions were lifting started a period of adjustment to a world that would never be the same. This book should make you think about that and what’s changed in your own life since then.

I don’t want to spoil anything, but the Blade Runner reference for me was a chef’s kiss moment. I had to reread it a couple of times in the character’s voice. Brilliant.

So, to sum up, a very enjoyable, quite out there, poignant, thought provoking book written by a doctor who was in a band and everything.

Yellow bucket is for kitchens, red is for toilets, green cloths are for touch points, blue bucket is for general areas.

[Joel Duncan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely hilarious experimental biography. I dream of meeting this man at some point. I loved this book wholeheartedly. The fact this has less than 50 ratings is an absolute tragedy because it is so funny and inspiring.

The way he thinks is so unique, I loved every second of it, and could have read another two hundred pages. I have so many thoughts but stayed up too late to finish it and I'm tired and how do you put such a unique book as this into a shape that can be reviewed.

Dr Simon Crump was arrested for protesting the cutting down of trees in Sheffield. Though this helped him achieve small time fame, it also earned him a suspended prison sentence. After losing his job, his wife and the comfort of his home in Sheffield, he became a cleaner. Although cleaning shit, and taking shit from just about everyone would make most people utterly depressed, Simon loves his job. This book is a comedic glimpse into the true life of an Aspie Doctor turned cleaner/author.

Everyone in Calderdale should read this. I'd recommend it to anyone, but not everyone will get it. I completely fell in love with Simon (no homo) and I am going to be reading his experimental fiction for sure.

[Cosimo White · Rating 1 out of 5]

The story reads like it was written by a teenager who thinks that swearing is a radical act, that nothing is his fault, and that the fact that he has a PhD means he deserves some kind of special treatment. The secondary female characters are one-dimensional and only serve as a kind of second-rate Greek chorus whose main purpose is to laugh at Simon's feeble jokes and react to his zany acts of rebellion.
There's an unpleasant kind of faux humility running through this book that reveals a lot about Simon's true character. He seems to long for recognition while feigning unwillingness for his activism and academic qualifications to be revealed to his co-workers. He feeds off the sympathy of others while having none for any of the people around him; the best he can come up with when describing his fellow cleaners is that they are 'lovely'.
I know this is supposed to be fiction but some things just don't add up; if Simon was fired for his tree activism, why did that happen during COVID, rather than during the period of his activism, which was well before the pandemic?
Granted, this is not a serious work of fiction but even a lightweight novel like this should do better, if its aim is to throw a light on the assumptions we make about the people around us, and to recognise the contribution made by those who work in essential services.

[Rick Hamilton · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is everything you want from a book: genuinely laugh-out-loud funny, and savagely heartbreaking. If you've ever worked in the service industry, you should read this book. If you haven't, you MUST read this book. With pathos and humility, it deals with the contrasts of solidarity, warmth and love, and scorn, humiliation and pettiness that anyone who has ever worked with the general public will immediately recognise. It's a hugely entertaining read, and one that truly makes you think. Good literature enhances your awareness of what it means to be human. This book, by that definition, is good literature.

[Andy Ritchie · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is quite simply brilliant!
And odd!
But brilliant!!
All the more so because it is biographical, telling the story of Simon Crump's short stint as an early morning cleaner at an electronics factory in Hebden Bridge.
And he paints a fantastic picture of camaraderie amongst cleaners, snobbery (and bitchery!) amongst staff who see them as low-lifes, and mischievousness that had me laughing out loud!!
Anyone who can take the famous Ray Batty lines from Blade Runner and make them relevant to Hebden Bridge is a genius.

And what's even better is that I actually bought this copy of the book from the very shop in Hebden Bridge that is mentioned in the very last chapter!!!

[DR MATTHEW T R HILL · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is funny, first and foremost. A group of women cleaners gradually welcome a fragile, quirky, rebellious man into their circle. Battles are fought, lost and won between the cleaners, managers, and some of the office staff. Tightly-held beliefs about the cleaners' place in the class/workplace hierarchy are challenged. Some characters find the challenge abhorrent, and it's not clear until the end how the situation will be resolved. Although at heart a serious novel, with touching passages on love, loss and belonging, there is more than enough humour to keep the reader chuckling throughout, and laughing out loud in places.

[Jennifer Bew Orr · Rating 5 out of 5]

Every page of this story offers a smile or a laugh. The world of work as a cleaner during a pandemic, the camaraderie of sneaky tea breaks, the delightful subterfuge of striking back at those who disrespect others, all come across poignantly and with humor. The high price of doing the right thing and having it cost you your professional position is lightly and expertly conveyed. I loved the playfulness of occasional references to the agent who is reading the manuscript even as it is being lived out. This is the most honest, enjoyable, uplifting novel I’ve read this year - treat yourself!

[Cat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a delightful book. It's undeniably quirky and a little eccentric but it's also a beautifully written funny, poignant and thought provoking piece of work. You become immersed in Simon's world where the unusual is the everyday but it also shows how invisible people can be and how kindness goes a long way. And I wish I was brave enough to wreak the revenge he does. Or doesn't, officially...treat yourself to this book which will make you laugh, cry and want to make the world slightly less mean.

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[Susan Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A truly fabulous book. I adore it.

Fabulous!! I adore this book. Extremely funny, intensely sad , unexpected twists...a somewhat different take on Crumps other works although they are just as crazily brilliant. I would unreservedly recommend his books.

[Lee Behlman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Swift and adorable without being cloying in any way. Now I just want to hang out with the author.

[smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

maybe one of my favourite things i have read ever ?

[Christopher Walthorne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A charming gem that’s certain to brighten your day.