Since the mid-2000s, consistent commentary from politicians and media outlets in the UK have presented low educational attainment and low aspiration as defining attributes of working-class boys in education. It has often characterised them as misogynistic, aggressive and unwilling to learn. But how true is this?

Combining research, real-life case studies and the author’s experience of navigating school exclusion, this book provides clear recommendations for how to better support the health, wellbeing and vulnerabilities of working-class boys and men through both policy and practice.

Challenging us to reconsider ideas about the role of masculinity in the lives of working-class boys and men, the book asks what would change if, instead of focusing on perceived individual failures, we considered the troubled relationship between working-class boys and the social and educational systems in which they reside.

“Compelling, compassionate and uncompromising in its honesty. Lost Boys gives me hope.” Jason ‘Foxy’ Fox, Special Forces Instructor, SAS: Who Dares Wins

“A game-changing take on masculinity – where sharp research meets raw personal insight.” Darren McGarvey, author of Poverty Safari: Understanding the Anger of Britain’s Underclass

“Alex's readable, honest and passionate book offers a roadmap for hope in the way we see and support young working-class men.” Sarah Atkinson, CEO, Social Mobility Foundation

“A beautifully written book. Thoughtful, deeply personal and combining years of practitioner experience, Blower has produced exactly the kind of generous, well-researched and hopeful account of young working-class men we need to counter dominant reactionary narratives.” Sam Friedman, author of The Class Ceiling: Why it Pays to be Privileged

Alex Blower is Research Fellow at Arts University Bournemouth. Having faced challenges related to mental ill health and school exclusion as a young man, his motivation for writing this book is as personal as it is professional.