Publisher's Synopsis
'Touching, insightful and human - this book demands a social and, above all, a political response' Jon Snow
Tamsen Courtenay spent two months speaking to people who live
on London's streets, the homeless and the destitute - people who feel they are
invisible. With a camera and a cheap audio recorder, she listened as they
chronicled their extraordinary lives, now being lived four feet below most
Londoners, and she set about documenting their stories, which are transcribed
in this book along with intimate photographic portraits.
A builder, a soldier, a transgender woman, a
child and an elderly couple are among those who describe the events
that brought them to the lives they lead now. They speak of childhoods, careers
and relationships; their strengths and weaknesses, dreams and regrets; all with
humour and a startling honesty.
Tamsen's observations and remarkable experiences are threaded throughout. The astonishing people she met
changed her for ever, as they became her heroes, people she grew to respect.
You don't have to go far to find these homegrown exiles: they're at the bottom
of your road. Have you ever wondered how they got there?
