Grenfell Hope: Stories from the community

by Gaby Doherty

Gaby and her husband Sean and their four children live in a flat across from Grenfell Tower, and Sean (a Church of England minister) was the first clergy person on the scene. This book stems from personal experience of the impact of the fire. It features the testimony of and commentary on the community that experienced it, and the amazing stories of hope that followed in its wake.

Grenfell Hope will help readers understand what it was like living in North Kensington before and after the fire. It will help engage the reader with poverty issues, to examine attitudes to the poor and to consider how even small gestures in everyday life can change local communities.

In the desperate situation of the fire, God was at work in people’s hearts bringing hope in tiny gestures that mounted up to something enormous. Hope that couldn’t be ignored or even contained. Hope sprang out all over the country.

Genres: Nonfiction

192 pages, Paperback

Published June 14, 2018

Reviews

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

An account of the Grenfell Tower fire from a neighbour but mostly focussed on the stories of hope, support and community in the aftermath. Although it emphasises that the efforts are multifaith/non-faith across the board (and that it brought everyone together regardless of belief etc), there is a lot of focus from the point of view of Christianity (understandably, as the writer is a Christian and her husband is a member of the Clergy). As an Agnostic, it wasn't possible to fully identify with that aspect, which features heavily. But as a human being it was easy to feel for the people affected and made for emotional reading.

[Hannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a good book to read, obviously full of pain - Gaby doesn't hide the rawness of her and her community's feelings in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy, and the wounds which linger on - but she also fills the pages with an insuppressible hope in the goodness of humanity and of God. Story after story of courage, compassion and love.

Finishing reading it today, was an antidote to the gloom I feel over the general election result!

[Gill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well done Gaby Dougherty. An important marker in the Grenfell saga, blending many stories, and unafraid to include 'good' experiences amongst the bleak and dreadful ones. Such a refreshing contrast to the angry, negative media stories we are often fed. Made me really homesick for the inner city.....

[Ian Bramley · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book which should challenge all of us. Reading it several years after the Grenfell fire, it is important to not forget this horrendous disaster and to continue to hold the issues of inequality up to the light.

[Jane Newey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good to read and hear the stories of courage and the community

[Tanya Marlow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gaby is a dear friend who was on the ground, living opposite when the Grenfell Towers burned down and ministering in that community. This was my (long!) endorsement for her book:

“How do we offer hope when disaster comes to our door? In this timely book, Doherty offers a rare perspective: the eyewitness accounts of the political leaders and religious communities, and how they helped on the ground. This is not a book full of ‘grief tourism’, but an exploration of the good – and bad – ordinary people can do. The book identifies unexpected heroes who love justice, look suffering square on and don’t offer glib answers, but look for practical good and supernatural hope.

“As someone active in the hub of support after the Grenfell fire, Doherty not only writes hope, she lives it. She is the perfect person to present this treasury of shards of hope within the wreckage, and she does so with grace and humility. Read it for lament, not hand-wringing; intelligent critique, not outrage; a vision of justice, not despair – and above all, read it to be inspired by ordinary people, and reflect on what it means to be a hope-bearer in this world.”