{"title":"Jenny Manson","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"public-service-on-the-brink-book-jenny-manson-9781845403065","title":"Public Service on the Brink","description":"The contributors to this book mount a robust defence of the concept and practice of public service at a crucial time for its future. They question the ill-conceived assumptions behind the endless programmes of reform imposed by successive governments, often on the basis of advice from people with no direct experience of working in the public sector. With cuts in public spending by the coalition government and austerity programmes being imposed in Britain and abroad, the book could not be more timely in its reminder of the core purpose of public service. After a long period of denigration of the public sector, here is the voice that has not been heard clearly through these decades of reorganisation: I know what my job is and I want to do it as well as I can. Indeed I would love my work if I could get one day's peace to get on with it. But I am beset at every turn by unintelligible, time wasting and fruitless management initiatives, constant change, ill-judged targets, wrong-headed commercial exemplars and continuous and misguided restructuring. I have to watch as, instead of my customers (actually patients, pupils, taxpayers) getting a better deal from me, the only beneficiaries seem to be those who can lobby for special treatment. The book contains accounts of public service by people of varying backgrounds and ages who work both inside and outside of the public sector. They share an allegiance to the value and purpose of working for the common good and an enthusiasm for getting things right and for the opportunity to recount their experience through this book.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49537970307345,"sku":"GOR006335162","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1845403061.jpg?v=1751432861"},{"product_id":"what-it-feels-like-to-be-me-book-jenny-manson-9781846943621","title":"What It Feels Like To Be Me","description":"This book is about being alone in our heads. It gives a rare glimpse of what other people feel like: to read it is to reflect on our own experience of being. People hide behind their appearance in order to get by in the world. In this book men and women alike of all ages reach beneath their skin to reveal their inner self. Am I the same person day to day, year to year? Is there an essential core as the layers of life are peeled away? And to what extent do the different stages of life beg different kinds of answers to the question what it feels like to be me? Readers will see how similarly Julie aged 85 and Nina aged 14 address the questions and how the themes thread through all the contributions. Brilliant poems by Dannie Abse and Peter Phillips look back and forwards in their lives. An Israeli artist looks at himself in two photographs. Three commentators give their views: a professional counsellor, a distinguished scientist and Dr Jonathan Miller.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49546820354321,"sku":"GOR002896996","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1846943620.jpg?v=1751249677"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-jenny-manson.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}