The Good Society

Thought-provoking, erudite … contains a vital positive message: we can move towards a fairer, healthier, more compassionate and sustainable society … Pickett … shines a light for hope – Martin Chilton * Independent, Non-fiction Book of the Month**** *
In her new book, the co-author of The Spirit Level gathers jaw-dropping facts about the inequality crisis in the UK – and explores creative ways to address it … There was a moment when reading Kate Pickett’s new book that I realised I was underlining something on nearly every page … there is nothing small about Pickett’s proposals … a clear blueprint for the UK – Aida Edemariam * Guardian *
Daringly optimistic … It is valuable to remind people of the building blocks of a good society: decent healthcare, education and treatment of the less well-off * Financial Times *
The Good Society has lots of ideas … a whistle-stop tour of the greatest hits of progressive social policy, from Finnish schools to Norwegian prisons … [the] section on Universal Basic Income … represents a serious and substantive proposal for tackling both inequality and injustice – Jonathan Portes * Guardian *
Packed with vision, hope and a practical plan – just what these times are crying out for – Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics
An electrifying book: audacious in its range, blistering in its analysis and yet warm and immensely readable – Polly Morland, author of A Fortunate Woman
Genuinely transformative, grounded in rigorous evidence and focused on what really matters. A powerful and deeply humane vision – Daniel Chandler, author of Free and Equal
An uplifting vision for solving inequality that benefits everyone – Andy Burnham
Poverty and inequality are at the heart of all our problems. Kate Pickett’s book shows through a consistent frame of care and compassion how tackling them must be at the heart of our solutions too – Zack Polanski
This is what we need. A clear roadmap that makes the case for how things can be better in achievable and realistic ways – Sammy Wright, author of Exam Nation
Grounded in practical, tried-and-tested solutions from across the world, The Good Society offers real hope that the problems we face are not insurmountable – Jonathan Aldred, author of License To Be Bad
Optimistic and realistic - a brilliant personal account of what a lifetime of world-leading research on health and well-being shows us is possible – Danny Dorling, author of The Next Crisis
Building on a long, distinguished career as a researcher on the links between ill-health and inequalities, Kate Pickett has brought the threads together in an elegant call for a Good Society – Guy Standing, author of The Politics of Time
Kate Pickett brings much needed intellect, expertise, experience and empathy to the urgent challenges now facing our society – Melissa Benn
The country desperately needs a new lodestar of hope. The Good Society is the book we have been waiting for – Neal Lawson, Director of Compass

Kate Pickett

Kate Pickett is Professor for the Public Understanding of Social Science and Director of the Born in Bradford Centre for Social Change at the University of York.

Her landmark book The Spirit Level: Why Equality is Better for Everyone, co-written with Richard Wilkinson, was an international bestseller. It was chosen by the Guardian as one of the 100 most influential books of the century and by the New Statesman as a top ten book of the decade. Their follow-up, The Inner Level, explores the profound effects of societal inequality on individual health and wellbeing.

Pickett’s writing has appeared in numerous publications, including the Guardian, Nature, and the New York Times. She has delivered over 500 keynote speeches, including at the United Nations, the European Parliament, and within UK government departments.

She is the co-founder of the Equality Trust, academic director of Health Equity North, and a fellow of the RSA, the UK Faculty of Public Health, and the Academy of Social Sciences. In 2023, she received an OBE for services to societal equality.

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