Idyllic Ipswich? I saw its dark side when I grew up there ... and couldn't wait to escape: by the Daily Mails Suzanne Moore.

From the hard hitting and thought provoking article....

'They risk their lives, for their lives are worth so little.

It is no surprise that Ipswich is the second cheapest place in the country to score crack. Look at the geography. Nearby are the huge ports of Harwich and Felixstowe, once a faded resort where I played in rock pools but now a massive and weirdly empty container dock.

As the old farming methods died in Suffolk and prairie farms took over, fewer farm labourers were required. Out in the villages, the boys who would have been pig farmers became junkies. I knew some of them. They are now dead.

Some high-tech industries moved in, but there was always an undercurrent of violence in the town centre on a Saturday night, as in so many market towns. Mini-riots, fights in which boys might lose an eye, were common. These things go unreported.'