Cathy Come Home

Sandford's 'Cathy Come Home' details the issue of homelessness and the life of a young woman in 1960s London as she moves from her own home, to council accomodation, and finally emergency accomodation for the homeless before being evicted and her children taken into care. It is a harrowing and emotive screenplay of the '60s television docu-drama which caused social upheaval upon its transmission and caused the homeless charity 'Shelter' to be formed. Although often distressing to read, I cannot recommend this book highly enough as it truly will change the way you look at the issue. Perhaps the most tragic thing of all is the preface to the re-printed edition which discusses how the issue of homelessness is now worse today than it was when Sandford decided to document it with this amazing play.

Auteur

Jeremy Sandford was born in 1930, died 2003, and was educated at Eton, Oxford, and joined a touring military band when young. He is the author of the screenplay Edna the Inebriate Woman. Cathy Come Home was awarded the Writers Guild Best Television Play, the ACTT Best TV Play of the Year, and the Italia Prize. Ken Loach directed the TV documentary of the book, and after it was aired, the then government called a special screening of the play to Housing ministers in Westminster, following the fierce political debate in the newspapers that followed the TV airing. Discussions on the 4000 plus families who were homeless in the UK in 1966 commenced, and following governments passed laws on social housing to improve conditions.