Baby X – review

Baby X: Harry Keeble with Kris Hollington

With prose similar in places to  that of a Sunday tabloid exclusive, there are plenty of fascinating stories in this behind-the-scenes account of Hackney’s Child Protection Team to keep readers interested.

Author Harry Keeble portrays himself as ‘a super- tough cop’ working in Hackney’s Child Protection Team, battling against not only abusive carers but also lack of resources and bureaucracy.

At the beginning of the book, Harry Keeble comes across as a real-life Gene Hunt from Life on Mars as he deals with all manner of subjects such as witchcraft, paedophilia, lynch mobs and hostage situations.

Over the course of later chapters, however, the author begins to see things in a more considered way and becomes ‘the new, improved Harry’.

It is during one of these more considered moments, which he calls his ‘soapbox moment’ that he begins to offer the solutions to the problems he has seen.

At the root of his complaint is the lack of funding from the Government meaning that children “are not provided with a five-star service to protect them when things go wrong.”

Even though the horrific stories of the author are at the forefront of this book, he does manage to leave a note of optimism, as he also offers solutions to the problems he has seen at first hand and highlights the good work being done for children by charities and public bodies, such as the remarkable work of Kid’s Company.

It reaches over 14,000 children across the capital, giving hope to young victims of abuse such as those that we read of in this book. Potential readers will be reassured to hear that despite the horrific stories, it’s not just 274 pages of bleakness.