Searching Finance is delighted to announce that Carl Packman has signed with us to write Loan sharks (to be published April 2012).

Some more about Carl.

Carl Packman is a writer, campaigner and researcher based in London.

After graduating he worked in a school in Essex populated predominantly by a local traveller community, before becoming a researcher in children's policy, then moving into health research.

He has written for various publications such as the Guardian, the New Statesman, Tribune Magazine and The Philosopher's Magazine on subjects as varied as atheism, the war on terror and loan sharks.

He is a regular blogger having written for such popular blogs as Left Foot Forward, Liberal Conspiracy, Open Democracy, Labour Uncut and Harry's Place.

He also maintains a blog called Though Cowards Flinch with various other authors and bloggers. Carl recently contributed a chapter on personal debt to The Red Book, written with various Labour party, activists, councillors and Members of Parliament. 

Provisional table of contents

1. In the beginning: Money lending throughout the ages
   a) Ancient usury – The shape of things to come
   b) Personal debt in Europe and America – The myth of commodity fetish and the commercialisation of everything
   c) Edwardian and Victorian era debtors – the forgotten British class war
2. The age of debt: The legacy of credit in the UK
   a) Context in numbers
   b) Ways and means of managing debt today
   c) The short term solutions to debt
3. The Loan Shark: Lending a hand or dangerous debt on our doorstep
   a) Illegal loan sharks – The criminal underworld
   b) Legal loan sharks – New saviour, new danger
   c) The future of lending – credit selling in an age of heightened consciousness
4. What to do?
   a) A look at the campaigns: A UK context
   b) How to subvert personal debt cycles today
   c) Long term aims