Exeter alumnus publishes Is This Working?: The Jobs We Do, Told by the People Who Do Them

Exeter College alumnus Charlie Colenutt (2013, History; 2016, MSt US History) has published Is This Working?: The Jobs We Do, Told by the People Who Do Them with Picador, and imprint of Pan Macmillan publishers.  

Meeting in coffee shops, pubs and front rooms, Charlie travelled the country for two years, to talk to hundreds of strangers about their jobs and through this discovered the one thing that most British adults have in common – work. The result is a book that the Sunday Times described as “Strangely gripping . . . Fascinating and often moving”. 

Charlie spoke to midwives, sex workers and consultants, exploring the many grievances they have to air. From the church minister who, maddened by his email inbox, has come to feel more like an administrator than a spiritual leader; the cleaner who became so frustrated by the lack of change in her local area that she ran to be a councillor and won; the baker who used to hate touching flour; and the trade union organiser, not pressured by hours or targets, but by the cause. 

Is This Working?: The Jobs We Do, Told by the People Who Do Them was published on 6 March 2025 and is available to order from Waterstones and other booksellers now.