‘FOUR FEET UNDER’

Here you can find out what’s in the book, see some photographs I took of the amazing people I met, read an extract from one of the stories and order your own copy … enjoy

What is the book about?

The secret, horrifying world of homelessness, as told by the people themselves. During the months I spent on the streets of London, I recorded our conversations as people told me how they survive the horrors of street-life and about who they were before their nightmare began.

I learned about what they dream of for the future, what they're afraid of and what they actually feel, underneath all those dirty, torn clothes. It was incredible.

What's in the book?

Inside the book are thirty life stories, thoughts and reflections from a wide range of homeless people. People like Benji (a chef-cum-builder), Edward (a marine biologist), Jade (a child prostitute), Kenny and Jane (an elderly couple), Brad and Patrick (businessmen), and Jasmine (a transsexual).

Between us, the homeless and I tried to make sense of their lives – lives they live four feet below the rest of us, on the pavement – where they laugh, think, worry and sometimes die.  I asked countless questions: What was their childhood like? How do they manage to stay alive? What do they think about when they fall asleep at night? Where are their families? Where are they when I can’t see them? What do they do all day?

Extracts from one of the stories in the book - Jade’s

 I do go through the bins, I do pick up pizza off the floor … all that … it makes me feel horrible. I look around, like, ‘Is anyone watching me?’”

Over the weeks I regularly ran into Jade, and I developed great affection for this girl. She was engaging - a fighter, small, tough, scarred inside and out and so brave.  Her courage was only fractionally greater than the violence she lived with.

Jade had been homeless for most of the last eight years - a lifetime when you are only 23 years old. Before I turned on the recorder, I was asking general questions about her childhood and that was when I first heard her say she was ‘daddy’s little princess’.  She said it with her huge smile.

Had I left it at that - walked away then - I would have thought what a shame things ended so badly for her, but at least she’d had a loving father.  And that would have been a huge, huge mistake.

Jade - extracts from her story, in her own words:

“I was raised by my nan and grandad because my mum was really young and was in a violent relationship with another man.  I loved my nan and grandad.  They raised me brilliant - basically, bed at seven and I had to do my homework. I was allowed contact with my real dad but he was always in and out of jail - theft, petrol robbing and criminal offenses like that.

Yeah, when I was young, I was ‘daddy’s little girl’ - he used to take me shopping and spoil me because when he used to commit crime it paid good money. He worked as a postman and was robbing all the people’s Visas and cards. No-one stopped me seeing him ‘cos I never used to tell them nothing about what he did.

Watching my dad’s lifestyle, that’s how I fell into that lifestyle, from a very young age.  I smoked my first cigarette at eight with my dad and I started hanging around with all the estate ‘losers’ … I was 13, 14, 15 - smoking, drinking.  Back at the age of ten, I found my dad using ‘crack’ and I kept thinking, ‘What’s he doing?’  We was in, like, a B&B, one room - that was all the council gave us - I didn’t know he was using ‘crack’ .  My dad gave me my first ‘crack’ pipe at the age of ten.  In my eyes I thought it was a good thing because it brought us that bit closer. I’ve had my dad in the next room when I’m doing prostitution and he’s going out and getting customers and then bringing them back.  He had a £300-a-day habit

I know I’m going to die soon. I’ve got two blocked arteries, a damaged heart valve - all through heroin - it clotted all around my heart when I was injecting in my groin. I’m petrified.  I’m petrified of dying.  But I try not to think about it.  I just can’t think about it.

I’ve been pretty well homeless for eight years, since I was fifteen.  On and off, but my longest time now is the last two years. This will be my second Christmas straight on the street.

But even though I’ve gone through this episode of going downhill, I will succeed and I’m going to push myself. I’m going to work with disabled children.

Truthfully, the last seven or eight years I’ve just had to try and survive.  I’ve been emotional.  It’s just horrible outside … everyone just walks past you. I’ve cried through the night, some nights … and there’s people coming out of the pub and wee'ing all over us - it’s drinkers coming to the pub, coming clubbing - they get drunk and think, ‘Oh, let’s do this little, silly thing’. I get wee’d on, so then I have to throw my blanket away - and when you lose a blanket ... I breakdown.  Emotionally.  I just start crying.  And the worst thing is, when that’s happened, it’s always the next day when you’re hungry and you’ve got no blanket and everyone still walks past you.  Not caring.

For money, I sleep with dealers and then they give you the ten-shot [a £10 syringe of heroin].  Some of them will smoke all night with you and look after you and not want sex, but prostitution - it’s the only way to cope for money out here - for the simple fact that when we beg on the street, which I find so, so hard ‘cos everyone walks past, looks down at you - and not one of them has taken the time and said, “All right?  How are you?”  A little hello would be fine, it makes you feel stronger.  That’s what I recommend to people - if you don’t want to talk to the homeless, at least say ‘Hello’ and smile because that will make them feel a little bit stronger.

The drugs block it all out. The thing is, when you’re doing prostitution, there’s no feeling, no thought - you just lie there. I don’t sleep at night.  Because with everything that’s happened to me, I’m petrified.  I will not lie there at night, asleep. I try and sleep in the day.

Pictures from the book

Why photographs?

For me, the pictures I took are nearly as powerful as the voices I listened to. Images, especially the portraits, just seem to say so much. The lives they're forced to live are scratched, one way or another, across all their faces.

Difficulties of 'street photography'

There are so many aspects of this kind of photography that I absolutely love. There are no second chances - no way you can ask a person in these situations to repeat whatever it was they were saying or doing - and half the time I had no idea at all if the shot would be any good.

The physical conditions are about as tough as they can be. As I was doing this work in late autumn and into winter, it was very often so cold my fingers were a bit numb (not great when you're handling a camera!) and rain was a constant challenge for the lens. I had no control over lighting or things/other people who got into the shots sometimes so it was all, frankly, a bit hit and miss. But that's the thrill, the magic - you are working by 'seat of your pants' as you delve deeper into the stories.

The ethics of the photography

It was often a potentially ‘lose-lose’ situation – take a picture and risk being offensive, or don’t take the picture and lose the moment, that split second when a person’s face is saying something greater than the sum of their spoken words. Just so you know, everyone whose picture you see in the book, gave their permission. I talk a bit in the book about the morality of this kind of work - it's a complex and sensitive issue.

Reviews of Four Feet Under

Readers’ reviews

Want to read all the Amazon reviews? Well, that’d be amazing (unlikely, but amazing!) Here are some to give you an idea …

This is the best book I’ve ever read. Groundbreaking. – BETH

What an incredible book. Stories of London’s homeless, so beautifully documented. Along with the sadness, there is so much warmth and humour in the book too. Best of all, the voices and personalities really come through. I will be buying several more copies as want everyone I know to read this! – CM WHITE

One of the most powerful books that I’ve read for many years. – LINCS READER

Totally incredible. I could easily have read another 200 pages if there were anymore to read. I was all consumed with reading it and it was fantastic. Thank you so much for such a moving and compelling read. I would highly recommend this book and although at times it is heartbreaking it is also funny and thought provoking. – DONNA EDMONSTON

A collection of narratives from the homeless themselves, this book gives a different perspective and deeper understanding of their day to day experiences, and even on topics such as their drug use. My deepest respect to the author for a work that is profoundly humanist, sympathetic and non-judgemental. – AH

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