I own a London flat in a block that was clad in ACM panels similar to those that proved so disastrous at Grenfell, so I have a vested interest in this book.

But the story, brilliantly researched and told by Peter Apps, is of course much wider and deeper than just the advent of this type of - thank God - now-damned building product.

It is a tragic, depressing account. Apps exposes the very worst of UK plc: a construction industry involved in a race to the bottom; the dehumanising effects of neoliberal, cost-cutting, small state ideology; a bizarre, macho, monolithic culture in the London Fire Brigade (recently exposed again); under-qualified people making life-and-death decisions; a local council that seemed to actively loathe most of its residents; a peculiarly British attitude to housing that has stripped it of its essential purpose - to provide a safe home - and turned it into something as greed-driven and unstable as the market for crypto-currency.

Add in Brexit, add in COVID, and who could deny that venal, self-serving attitudes, mendacity and callous incompetence are coming to define this country?

The book cuts between the development of the lethal materials and shoddy construction processes that were in place at Grenfell and the events of the tragic night itself, creating an effective tension between the business and human sides of the story. Apps is not afraid to point fingers, and rightly so. There has been so much inaction and so many inane excuses, particularly from this government. I, like many hundreds of thousands of flat owners, have despaired as a succession of housing ministers have refused to address the issue. Meanwhile we all sat in our homes, made worthless by events and the mortgage industry, anxiously checking the batteries in our smoke alarms, fixing our self-closing doors, paying for waking watches, and worrying if we would all be made bankrupt by the vast demands from landlords and freeholders for remedial works.

72 people died at Grenfell. 72. Grandparents. Babies. Mothers. Fathers. With so little change, politically and socially - still, unbelievably, we have a government committed to austerity and deregulation - there will be another terrible event like Grenfell, and yet more bodies.

An excellent must read for everyone especially those working in housing, local or national government. Well written book.

As something of an early riser, I happened to watch the Grenfell conflagration as it happened live on the nation’s television screens from about two o’clock on the morning of the 14th. June, 2017. It was both a harrowing experience and, more to the point, a plainly preventable tragedy; clearly some idiot(s) had thought it sensible to cover the exterior of a tower block in something akin to candle wax and now large numbers of people were dying (live on tv) as a result. I found myself in tears by 6.00.am. and embarked on an online search which brought the concerns of the Grenfell Action Group (GAG) to light. Its complaints together with the web of corruption, greed, lies, obfuscation, prevarication and callous unconcern on the part of the relevant commercial and regulatory entities which has been uncovered subsequently serve to emphasise the avoidability and the needless horror of the whole episode.

And Peter Apps has done a tremendous job in documenting the entire disgraceful story – making him a deserving winner of the 2023 Orwell Prize for Political Writing. Weaving together a minute by minute account of the unfolding tragedy – who died and who lived – with the longer term narrative of deregulation (a commercially liberating bonfire of red tape), he lays the blame firmly at the door of the incremental but ultimately comprehensive changes made to building regulations in the wake of Thatcher’s 1979 election victory. Detailing a range of warnings from the fire at Knowsley Heights on Merseyside in 1991 to the Lakanal House disaster in 2009, he explains how regulation was replaced by guidance, how the construction industry was enabled to self-certify (to mark its own homework) and how the agency charged with monitoring construction standards was privatised… a genuine race to the bottom.

In this context, two quotations are worth noting. First, there are the words of Philip Heath when questioned about the fire risk of his company’s insulation: “I think they are confusing me with someone who gives a damn.” Well, given that he’s been obliged to appear before the Grenfell Inquiry and answer questions about his company (Kingspan), he gives a damn now. Second there is the book’s title, “Show me the bodies”, which refers to a remark made by a civil servant who was resisting the tightening of fire regulations after being warned that a catastrophe was possible; he (well, it was almost certainly a he) could certainly be shown plenty of bodies now.

Only recently did Michael Gove admit the Tory Government & Successive governments before Labour included created the Truly Horrific Grenfell Disaster - Peter Apps' book succeeds because it is very compassionate and on the side of Tenants including the ones who fatefully lost their lives on the 14th June 2017 - as far back as 1986 the use of Aluminium Composite Material was cited as being highly combustible along with the hideous plastic insulation products along that the crown on top of Grenfell Tower was made of ACM & De-regulated policies aimed at corporate greed over human morality allowed the Truly tragic events of Grenfell - George Osborne's Austerity prevented the use of Sprinkler systems in flats which would have out the fridge fire which then became a very extreme towering inferno - Tenants has Peter Apps said were not being listened to including maintenance repairs not being done and the tenant who prophetically realized that such a disaster was destined to happen. Tory Government then attempted another cover-up by claiming the ACM material was banned but Eric Pickles (who in the public enquiry got the number of victims wrong clumsily referencing Hillsborough victims) and Grant Shapps all let this flammable material on a great many buildings across England essentially being a mirror of how much Tory Government treats its citizens. Disabled people & I am one myself living with very profound Complex-PTSD and a victim myself of relentless failings by Authorities - in Grenfell there was no evacuation policy for disabled residents with mobility issues in fact the Stay Put message was in place which essentially killed a lot of residents that could have survived if they had left earlier. ACM was an Aesthetic death-trap top-bottom of the building and learnings from previous disasters were seemingly never put into place by any governments Labour & Tory - residents were frequently violated and not allowed safety checks & is tragic that a Syrian who escaped Syria and was going to be taken part in The Great Get Together in tribute to Jo Cox who was murdered a year earlier tragically lost his life in Grenfell. Boris Johnson when London Mayor cut vast funds from the London Fire Brigade and they themselves had NO plan in place of what to do should a major fire disaster happen such as Grenfell - Peter Apps reads out all the names of the 72 Grenfell Victims and very movingly re-counts there last minutes on earth - I have a lot of compassion for them & very angry at Governments who let this happen along with Corporate firms Arconic & many more who fitted shoddily inept ACM to buildings and then try in the public enquiry to escape prosecution & criminal actions should they voice evidence. "You never know what you're made of until your life is broken," said one of the relatives in the public enquiry and in the aftermath despite a huge public outpouring a lot of the survivors were re-traumatised by not being housed in the right ways which help their traumatic suffering. I thoroughly recommend Peter Apps' book the title 'Show Me The Bodies" prophetically refers to such hideous ACM material being known for its faults and still being allowed on buildings due to financial gain over public safety.

With moving personal stories from victims and their families, accounts from fire fighters, control room operators and extracts from the inquiry transcript, Peter Apps tells the full story of Grenfell.

From Knowsley Heights (1991), Lakanal House (July 2009), and multiple fires in Dubai there were warning signs way before June 14, 2017.

“Cladding alone didn’t cause the Grenfell Tower tragedy. The tower also had non-compliant lifts, a malfunctioning smoke control system and gas pipes which punched holes in the compartmentation at every floor.”

Reading about all the defects in the building brought tears to my eyes, for the 72 that died, their friends and families and also for those responsible for all the fire fighters who tried to stop the fire and rescue those trapped in it.

“The story of Grenfell Tower is not an indictment of social housing, or even tower blocks. It is a call to take better care of these precious assets that form the backbone of so many communities.”

This is a brutal, horrifying account of a tragedy that should never have happened. It’s a must-read for any architect, fire engineer, politician, housing provider, building owner, or legislator - or, frankly, anyone. It exposes the worst examples of an awful combination of free market economics, social and racial bias, and government-led ignorance - and worst of all, it’s ongoing and unresolved.

Also invaluable for the links to documents from the Grenfell Inquiry (live in the ebook), which allows direct access to the source material.

Brilliant work from Peter Apps.

This book is one of the most horrifying books I have ever read, in places I cried. It is a terrifying indictment of UK government. I think it should perhaps be put on the GCSE syllabus, to educate and inoculate young people against becoming a drone in the lanyard class. The author should be given a knighthood to enable him to speak loudly in the places where deaf ears proliferate.

Peter Apps’ book describes in some detail the woefully inadequate governmental, industrial, local management and fire industry inability to do much except save themselves in the event of a catastrophe. Despite being very detailed, this is very readable,except that at times it is difficult to read without tears and anger. I cannot get the picture out of my mind of a mother and two young children slowly dying because they were given the wrong instructions.

Frankly, I think everybody should read this book unless you live in a cave. Every building owner or occupier, in a high rise or not, should be aware of possible dangers in the event of a fire. It has certainly made me look at my own flat block in a totally different way.

Having come from a social housing background I thought it was a must read to see how it happened.

L'incendi de la Torre Grenfell va suposar un fet traumàtic per la societat anglesa. En el llibre, es relata com es va gestant la tragèdia, des dels anys 70 fins el fatídic día 14 de juny de 2017. És un llibre extraordinari. Escrit d'una manera que et fa sentir molta tristesa pels fets que van ocórrer aquell dia i com van ocórrer.

Un llibre per emmarcar i per tenir-ho en les nostres biblioteques

Peter Apps has a clarity of expression which appears to derive directly from his clarity of purpose; he's angry, and he's right to be. The interweaving of human drama and catastrophe with bureaucratic and political lethargy, incompetence, and just stupid thinking, is very well done. On the cover the single blurb says that this is the first book "on housing" which brought the reviewer to tears; I would challenge any thinking person with an ounce of empathy not to have the same reaction. I found myself pounding the bed next to me with my fist, somewhat to my wife's surprise (though she was accustomed to me reading out the odd especially egregious passage of malfeasance or heedlessness) repeatedly.

I bought this book because I read a review essay which mentioned it in tandem with another book ("The New Life," by Tom Crewe, coincidentally with a very similar cover-colour scheme, also waiting beside my bed now), and although I of course knew about the Grenfell Tower disaster I did not know what to expect. You would think that a book about fire safety standards, planning permissions, social housing management and so forth would be dry and hard to warm to; not this book. This book gets its hooks into you more or less instantly and doesn't let go until you're done. It's not merely a literary accomplishment -- it is also the sort of cautionary tale which ought to be read and absorbed by anyone responsible for risk assessment in housing, anyone responsible for urban planning or city management or fire department policy...the lessons Apps draws are so widely applicable that I cannot but describe this book as an extremely important contribution. It doesn't escape me that it is almost certain that none of the constituents who might benefit from it will read it -- here in the US because it's "not local and therefore irrelevant," in the UK because, well, "that's not the way we do things."

Anyway, I recommend "Show Me the Bodies" without reservation.

Heard about this book from a fire course that I took. The instructor said it was a very interesting read for construction material that even the US uses that's dangerous.

Apps links daily life routines of Grenfell victims all the way to prime minister via industry and every parties on how they affected the catastrophy unfolding. Technical and administrative, it is all here. Unique food for thought for everyone involved in life safety.