Letters from Lockdown comprises 12 weekly letters written by the Director of Westminster Abbey Institute during the Coronavirus lockdown, and three accompanying essays that give the deeply personal perspectives of a politician, a civil servant and a police officer as the crisis unfolds. The letters are addressed to the public servants trying to carry the nation through the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic and were written to be a source of strength and support. As she wrote them, the author was unaware how events would unfold. Nevertheless, the 12-week period formed a narrative arc not unlike a classic 'hero's journey' and the letters show some similarities and differences between the classic plot and what the nation and its public servants had actually been through. The letters offer ways of strengthening public servants to make them ready, constant and enduring in their response to the needs of the nation. They speak of strengthening not just the soul of individual public servants but also of their institutions. The essays address not only the private and public struggles of public servants during the crisis but ask what, if anything, will change in our world as a result of the pandemic. They seek to equip public servants to respond to and shape emerging worlds and new needs.

'Dawn Butler is a history-making, game-changing, ceiling-smashing politician. This powerful book offers a fascinating insight into both the personal and political sides of her journey.' Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London 'When I was younger my parents taught me to be resilient and my brothers told me to be resistant, and now I think it's time for a revolution. Let's complete the power of three.' As the third Black woman ever to be elected as an MP, and the first elected African-Caribbean woman to become a Government Minister, Dawn Butler is a true pioneer. Famously ejected from the House of Commons for calling Boris Johnson a liar, her tireless campaigning to eradicate injustice - from the NHS to the Metropolitan Police - has changed lives. Until now, she's never talked openly about what has inspired and motivated her to persevere in the face of oppression. Drawing on lessons from her own life, Dawn shows how traditional routes to power are outdated and reveals that it's easier than we think to disrupt a broken system. From her early life to the Palace of Westminster, she shares the values, people, places and beliefs that have helped her to forge her own authentic path to power. Now she is on a mission to give others the courage and conviction to dream big and make positive change, even when everything feels broken around us.