On Post-it Notes from Underground by Simon Crump

A Book Review

This is a book review of Simon Crump’s latest book, Post-it Notes from Underground (published by BlueMoose Books). And I don’t want this to be one of those reviews where you get to the end and wonder if the reviewer liked it so I’ll put this out there right now and say I loved it, I bloody loved it.

Post-it Notes from Underground (P-iNFU) takes the form a diary written by one Dr. Simon Crump. He has lost his university job thanks to a suspended prison sentence he received for being involved in a campaign to save Sheffield’s trees. (See here article about a Dr Simon Crump and Sheffield tree saving escapades.)

In P-iNFU Crump is now working as a cleaner in an office/warehouse. Each diary entry starts with a motivational Post-it note left by the boss:

Every new day starts with a chance to change your life.

And the entry revolves around the daily tasks of cleaning. It turns out Crump bloody loves his job, the camaraderie of the other cleaners he works with, but not so much the general petty arsehole-ness of the management, workers in the office.

P-iNFU is a funny book. (And funny books are few and far between these days. See my recent post about most best selling books being about women being murdered.)

But there also serious themes, death, recovering from trauma, finding your place in the world, which colour bucket is for which area. Plot spoiler alert:

Yellow bucket is for kitchens, red is for toilets, green cloths are for touch points, blue bucket is for general areas.

It’s a short book - and really beautifully produced, well done BlueMoose - but I took my time reading it. I’d read an entry, put it down, have a think, do a bit of my own writing. Books I love make me want to write. To be as good as that.  This book is better than that. Than me.

A few things.

I also love trees. Here’s me last week taking a picture of some new trees in my local park. I googled their appearance after and found Leicestershire is on a mission to plant a million new trees. Bravo.

I am lucky enough to be the proud owner of two other Crump books; My Elvis Blackout and Neverland. I’m going to go back and reread them.

I also have done work as a cleaner. In a lingerie factory, for a chef, for the President of an airline, for a property magnet. Those stories are other tales for other times and not really about me. That’s the story I suppose. The strange disasters that blight us.

P-iNFU will join my list of other books I like about work. David Sedaris as a Christmas Elf. Marzhan Mon Amour, a true story of a writer who trains as a chiropodist. Sam Pink’s Ketchup, about a short order chef, Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts and the fencers within, no end of James Kelman’s grafters and grifters. And, of course, my own You, the dishwasher in Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel.

my caption

Finally, for keen followers of these posts, the broken microwave has gone and in its place I have a coffee maker. The parrot lamp approves, never having been a fan of microwaves in general