Homesick: Why I Live in a Shed by Catrina Davies

[JoysexrenovationFingerFumble]

Anyone else read this recently?

I’ve just finished it and it’s really got me thinking, in particular by putting a face to the housing crisis in popular holiday areas. And commuter areas come to that.

I particularly like her suggestion that perhaps home decorating magazines are so popular now because housing is in fact an unattainable luxury good for so many. I’m wondering whether my love of buying fresh flowers for my council flat is the housing equivalent of buying a Gucci t-shirt from the diffusion range. (Obviously not really as I have safe, well-maintained and affordable housing, but you get my point.)

Is this the woman who lives in St Just or somewhere near, down West in Cornwall?

I think she lives in Porthcurno...yes I read it a couple of months ago, it was really thought-provoking. She exposes so much that is insane and tragic about our national housing crisis. I have several friends who grew up in Cornwall and are bitter about the fact that they've been effectively cut off from their own communities because of the rampant second home market in Cornwall. Very poignant reflections about what home really means and what it is actually for; something we as a nation need to do some serious soul-searching about.