Grim lives of desperate people told with love and humour

By that definition, the same would be true of the politician's statistics.

Those thoughts spin through the mind while reading Trading Tatiana, Debi Alper's pacey, funny, heart-warming and ultimately tragic second novel.

It is released at a time when Tony Blair and Michael Howard are out-bidding each other to show us all how tough they are - or will be - on asylum-seekers. They should read this novel.

This is a political novel by a committed writer, writing from first-hand knowledge and detailed research.

The snippets of information about the scale of what is done by those who live off the misery of others is enraging and heart-breaking.

Jo lives in a top floor council flat off the Old Kent Road, runs a market stall and odd-jobs for an agoraphobic candle-maker.

She is always ready to baby-sit for her neighbours. She's the sort who is better at looking after others than after herself.

She's a recovering drug addict and good Samaritan - bleeding-heart liberal in new Labour-speak - living a fairly quiet existence.

Until, that is, she takes in Tatiana, a runaway Ukranian teenage prostitute.

Tatiana, a naturally talented gymnast, had been sold to a touring circus in the Ukraine by her impoverished parents and, later, in London, sold into prostitution by her brother, also with the circus, to clear his debts.

She escapes the clutches of a vicious group of Russian mafiosi and, when Jo takes her in, they are both in big trouble.

Not from the authorities, who don't give a damn and would deport her at the drop of a hat rather than pursue the big fish, but from the Russian thugs running an underworld trade in illegal immigration and prostitution where violence and distrust are rife.

The cause of such extremes of human misery, as we know, was the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Jo, looking for advice, turns to the only person she can think of - Mags, who works for a local drugs project.

Even Mags, calm and together, is horrified when she hears what Jo's got herself into.

The world of prostitution rackets, the international sex trade and corrupt or lazy lawyers is no place for enthusiastic do-gooders. But Jo will not back off.

This is about the grim existence of desperate people clinging on at the brink, yet told with great humour and love.

It is brilliantly written with all the underlying tensions of a terrific page-turner.

Get out there, buy it and read it.

GWYN GRIFFITHS