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  • Published: 23 August 2018
  • ISBN: 9781783525706
  • Imprint: Unbound Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

Four Feet Under

Thirty untold stories of homelessness in London



The first book of its kind to shed light on the untold lives of London’s homeless – a soldier, a transgender woman, a child prostitute and an elderly couple are among those who share their stories

‘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?

  • Published: 23 August 2018
  • ISBN: 9781783525706
  • Imprint: Unbound Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

About the author

Tamsen Courtenay

Tamsen Courtenay worked as an investigative journalist for the BBC’s Panorama and Channel 4’s Dispatches. She lives in central Italy, and wrote a blog called Land of the Forgotten Earthquakes about the seismic destruction of her region.

Praise for Four Feet Under

All too often we pass by, daring not to place ourselves, even temporarily, within the agony of street homelessness. Tamsen Courtenay reveals the diverse lives of suffering lived by the homeless thousands on our streets

Jon Snow