Oneworld picks up 'enraging' Grenfell account by journalist Apps

Oneworld has acquired Show Me The Bodies: How We Let Grenfell Happen by award-winning housing journalist Peter Apps.

Editorial director Cecilia Stein struck a deal directly with the author for world rights, and the book will be published as a paperback original on 3rd November. 

"Grenfell was the worst residential fire in Britain since the Second World War and it didn’t have to happen," the synopsis reads. "The fire climbed up cladding as flammable as solid petrol. Fire doors failed to self-close. No alarm rang out to warn sleeping residents. As smoke seeped into their homes, all were told to ‘stay put’ and 72 people lost their lives. Peter Apps unveils how a steady stream of deregulation, corporate greed and institutional indifference caused this tragedy."

Stein said: "This is an enraging story of a grieving community forsaken by our government and still waiting for change. It’s time to look squarely at the facts and demand some kind of restitution."

Apps is the deputy editor of Inside Housing and broke a story on the dangers of combustible cladding just 24 days before the Grenfell Fire. He has reported on the fire from the very beginning, working closely with the Grenfell community, and his coverage of the inquiry has been praised by the FT and Huffington Post.

"For five years, I have followed every twist, turn, heartbreak and frustration in the story of Grenfell – including providing daily coverage of the inquiry for the past two and a half years," he said. "The details of the callousness of the companies that let this happen and the negligence of successive governments who were complicit must be widely heard if we want to be sure this never happens again."