John Bartlett

It’s a searing indictment of the inequality of the legal system towards those who are not properly equipped to deal with the rigours of the bureaucratic neurotypical world. What is not mentioned is that our protagonist is #ActuallyAutistic (although I believe undiagnosed at the time) and throughout the book I was touched by the gentle simplicity and perhaps naively trusting nature of the adult who cannot countenance that anybody might have motives less pure than his own. He has a stark and logical way of seeing and pointing out that something is not right, in the way that we autistic people do, which is so deeply threatening to others, and his inability to understand why these wrong things are allowed to endure made me want to jump into the book and add my voice to his in protest.

I never imagined that I could I enjoy reading about a motor race but the racing scenes are brilliantly written and I felt like I was there in the car on the edge of my seat.

It is a terrifying book when you consider that these events actually happened to someone because he was doing his best to provide for himself and his family and one small event caused a catastrophic derailment of his life.

So to say that the book is enjoyable is not the right word; our hero’s pain is very real and as an autistic person I empathised wholeheartedly with his profound lostness at the injustices perpetrated by those in authority. I highly recommend reading it.