Social workers and other welfare workers daily work with many people who live in poverty. Sadly, little of what they see and hear reaches the broader population. A recent book, by Nick Davies, extends the tradition of what we now call investigative journalism. Davies meets some children who are selling their bodies on the streets of Nottingham, listens to their stories, and embarks on a journey of exploration into a world of child prostitution, drugs and housing estates full of despair. The early stages of the current election campaign in Australia suggest that there is little cause for optimism for the most disadvantaged.