Charmain Bynoe, a council housing officer for the London borough of Southwark, inspired the nation when she appeared on the TV series Council House Britain. Now, in The Estate, she shines a light on the challenges faced by so many of our citizens and provides heartwarming and inspirational stories of how they have been helped to help themselves. The role of our council housing officers is often overlooked and forgotten about. But their work is vital and, for some, the officers are their best hope for a better quality of life. Sometimes, Charmain works with those who are struggling to cope, finding it hard to keep a roof over their heads or to deal with day-to-day challenges. All they may need is some hope, and she is there to suggest a way forward. In Charmain's powerful new book, she looks back at some of the people she's worked with, from the old man who lives in squalor because he can no longer keep his flat tidy and needs support, to the young Ghanaian woman in a coercive relationship who fears that if she speaks out she will be deported. Britain's housing crisis remains an enormous issue for the country, which was only further highlighted by the Grenfell Tower disaster. But, as Charmain shows, with humanity and consideration for others, we can make things better in ways that don't have to cost a fortune but can deliver results that are truly priceless.

Extremely gender variant children and adolescents (minors), increasingly referred to as 'trans' or 'transgender children,' are small in number. In recent years, their situation has become highly sensationalized, whilst the matter of how to best treat them remains an area of controversy. A growing body of research supports emerging treatment approaches, but more research is still needed to answer a host of questions: Do trans minors have a psychiatric disorder or a normal variation of gender presentation? Should treatment be aimed at helping them accept the bodies into which they were born or should parents, clinicians and schools accommodate their wishes of transition? At what age should transition begin? What are the implications - physical, psychological, social and ethical - of various treatment approaches? The first part of this volume explores different clinical approaches to transgender minors in the USA and abroad. The second part contains responses to these approaches by commentators from various fields including biology, child psychiatry, civil rights activism, ethics, law, gender studies, queer theory and psychoanalysis. The work will be an invaluable source for parents and families looking at how to proceed with a trans child, as well as clinicians seeking to make appropriate referrals. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality.

Teen Angst: A Celebration of Really Bad Poetry is the first, the best, and the biggest collection of teen angst poetry ever to be published. Inspired by the popularity of her interactive website, editor Sara Bynoe has compiled the definitive teen angst reader. Divided into 12 categories, including I am Alone and No One Understands My Pain and Obvious Metaphors, this book is for anyone who has ever written truly terrible, meditative, or self-indulgent poetry. Actually, this book is for anyone who survived being a teenager.
All of the poets featured in this collection are now adults, living happy, angst-free lives. However, for this special book, they are willing to reveal excerpts from their old tattered notebooks or leather bound journals. Along with the poems, each poet has included a short introduction, giving background information for each work. As Sara Bynoe says, looking back on teen angst poetry brings people together in a "poetry reading meets stand-up comedy meets AA" sort of way.

Extremely gender variant children and adolescents (minors), increasingly referred to as 'trans' or 'transgender children,' are small in number. In recent years, their situation has become highly sensationalized, whilst the matter of how to best treat them remains an area of controversy. A growing body of research supports emerging treatment approaches, but more research is still needed to answer a host of questions: Do trans minors have a psychiatric disorder or a normal variation of gender presentation? Should treatment be aimed at helping them accept the bodies into which they were born or should parents, clinicians and schools accommodate their wishes of transition? At what age should transition begin? What are the implications - physical, psychological, social and ethical - of various treatment approaches? The first part of this volume explores different clinical approaches to transgender minors in the USA and abroad. The second part contains responses to these approaches by commentators from various fields including biology, child psychiatry, civil rights activism, ethics, law, gender studies, queer theory and psychoanalysis. The work will be an invaluable source for parents and families looking at how to proceed with a trans child, as well as clinicians seeking to make appropriate referrals. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Homosexuality.