Every year hundreds of interesting and quirky books slip under our radar thanks to information overload. In this series, we highlight books published this year you may have missed that are worth a second look.

How much do we know about what really goes on behind the scenes at our local supermarket?

This forms the subject of journalist Tazeen Ahmed’s fascinating debut book The Checkout Girl, published this summer.

Tazeen wanted to find out what a hundred billion pound hole from the financial crisis looked like in people’s pockets.

We see checkout girls at supermarkets every week.

They are privy to our most intimate secrets (men walking out with pregnancy test kits, the confirmed bachelor back again for another three bottles of wine) etc, and it turns out they are unbelievable gossips.

So last year Tazeen decided to go undercover at the front line of the recession and became a checkout girl to see how the nation was coping.

The Checkout Girl is an entertaining insight into the lives of the people with whom we unwittingly share some of our most intimate secrets.

It is also shines a light into the psyche of a struggling nation.

Tazeen Ahmad has been a TV presenter and reporter for over 12 years, most recently working for Channel 4’s Dispatches for whom she has made films that include Women Only Jihad, Undercover Mother, Christmas Credit Crisis and The Truth About Beauty Creams.

More info at Amazon.co.uk