Four Feet Under

‘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, Tamsen 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 here along with intimate photographic portraits.
A builder, a soldier, a transgender woman, a child prostitute and an elderly couple are among those who describe the events that led to the life they live now. They speak of childhoods, careers and relationships; their strengths and weaknesses, dreams and regrets; all with humour and a startling honesty.
Tamsen’s adventures and observations are threaded throughout. She was beaten with a piece of wood by a drunk man in a suit, learned what crack cocaine smells like and got a lung infection. But the people she met changed her forever and 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?