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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
informative
reflective
slow-paced
Homesick is the story of how Catrina Davies wound up living in a shed in West Cornwall. Stuck in Bristol doing grinding work for the minimum wage, she longed for the Cornwall of her childhood and dreamed of being a writer and musician. At a time when much of the publishing industry is wringing its hands at the lack of working class voices in literature it's a timely reminder that, for most people, security comes before art. If you have to work your fingers to the bone to keep a roof over your head, you have little time or energy to work on anything else, however fulfilling it might be.
Reading this gave me mixed emotions. First there's the inevitable anger at the injustice of our current system. The housing crisis that existed in Cornwall when Catrina wrote this book has intensified hugely since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Holiday homes are left empty for much of the year, private landlords make fortunes from people who scrape a living in low paid seasonal work, there is nowhere near enough social housing, and the laughably named affordable housing that is being squeezed into ever last bit of green space is poorly constructed and out of reach of most people living and working in the county. It's always been a given that Cornish residents will tolerate lower wages for the bonus of living in a beautiful place, but now that it is possible to work remotely and earn a higher wage from an upcountry firm the demand for, and therefore the price of, housing is rocketing.
Alongside the anger and sadness, I also suffered huge waves of jealousy for I totally understand the hiraeth that brought her home. I was fortunate enough to live in West Cornwall for a few years and when I left, a part of my soul stayed lodged on the windswept cliffs. And while we would never swap our home for such basic accommodation as a shed, the compromise we had to make in order to own a home was to move away from the coast into the once industrial heartland of the county.
Catrina is an engaging and vibrant companion, and happily things seem to be working out for her personally. Homesick is a very personal journey through the housing crisis and well worth reading.
Reading this gave me mixed emotions. First there's the inevitable anger at the injustice of our current system. The housing crisis that existed in Cornwall when Catrina wrote this book has intensified hugely since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Holiday homes are left empty for much of the year, private landlords make fortunes from people who scrape a living in low paid seasonal work, there is nowhere near enough social housing, and the laughably named affordable housing that is being squeezed into ever last bit of green space is poorly constructed and out of reach of most people living and working in the county. It's always been a given that Cornish residents will tolerate lower wages for the bonus of living in a beautiful place, but now that it is possible to work remotely and earn a higher wage from an upcountry firm the demand for, and therefore the price of, housing is rocketing.
Alongside the anger and sadness, I also suffered huge waves of jealousy for I totally understand the hiraeth that brought her home. I was fortunate enough to live in West Cornwall for a few years and when I left, a part of my soul stayed lodged on the windswept cliffs. And while we would never swap our home for such basic accommodation as a shed, the compromise we had to make in order to own a home was to move away from the coast into the once industrial heartland of the county.
Catrina is an engaging and vibrant companion, and happily things seem to be working out for her personally. Homesick is a very personal journey through the housing crisis and well worth reading.
informative
reflective
slow-paced
inspiring
medium-paced
I enjoyed the imagery of the shed and Catrina's life and friends in Cornwall. I didn't particularly enjoy all the political references.
emotional
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
A really enjoyable, quick read. I enjoyed it all the more because I recognise the locations. Yes, I'm one of those pesky holidaymakers that infiltrate the area in the tourist season, but thankfully not one who has a second home locked up for most of the year. Having spoken with locals often, I can sympathise with the current situation of locals not being able to make it onto the housing ladder. This definitely needs to change. But this situation is not limited to Cornwall. The Dales, the Lakes etc, also suffer. Whilst we should continue to welcome tourists for the good of the local economy, something needs to be done about the amount of homes sat empty for long periods of time.
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
I read this book in 24 hours, so emotive and we’ll written - a joy.
A tale of our times, a generational gap and a housing crisis that favours the ancestrally well connected and penalises everyone else.
A tale of our times, a generational gap and a housing crisis that favours the ancestrally well connected and penalises everyone else.
funny
hopeful
informative
reflective
sad
medium-paced
I liked this much more than I expected. It is a critique of society, the one we have in the UK, but the author is honest and self-deprecating and not especially judgemental. Besides I agree with her. I know what it feels like to be trapped in an economic hole, and I am one of the lucky ones. The book is also beautifully written, managing a coherent structure without seeming clichéd. Like the best of (similar is not the word, perhaps kindred) books such as The Outrun and H is for Hawk, the authorial voice and skill of the writer make a personal story identifiable and profoundly moving.
challenging
informative
slow-paced