Paper houses - Michle Roberts

Alternative politics, libertarian socialism, experimental living, feminist communes, street theatre, radical magazine, love affairs - gay and straight . . . sex 'n' drugs 'n' rock 'n' roll.

Paper Houses is the memoir of a young woman who comes down from Oxford to London in 1970, determined to break free from a conventional middle-class, close-knit family.

In the streets and houses of a dynamic, shifting London she finds alternative homes, alternative families and friendships that challenge, inform and shape her. As she wanders around the city she loves passionately, outer journeys inspire and merge with inner journeys. Her all-consuming longing to write causes conflict in her relationships and financial issues that lead her to something of an urban nomadic existence. Creating her own space - and learning to share it - in the houses of Holloway, Camberwell, Regent's Park, Notting Hill Gate and Peckham creates intellectual and ethical challenges, and leads to escape adventures in Bangkok, Bali and Italy.