Coming Home for Good: Personal reflections on homelessness

Growing up in '70s and '80s Thatcherite Britain, Roger developed a deep longing to escape from society to live as an itinerant, free from possessions and responsibilities. In Coming Home for Good Roger attributes this early ambition - or lack of - to a combination of broken home, educational difficulties, an apparently purposeless universe, and disillusionment with a capitalist society. After running away from home twice, Roger started to live the dream by hitch-hiking around the USA at the age of 19. At 21 he returned to the States to continue pursuing a free, hedonistic lifestyle after burning all his boats in England, eventually experiencing life with no possessions but the clothes he was standing in. Everything changed when he unexpectedly found Christian faith on the streets of America in 1987 and returned to the UK to pursue a career in nursing. He has now been managing a homeless healthcare service since 2004. Coming Home for Good traces the roots of Roger's lifestyle choices, the adventures and experiences of life on the roads and streets of America, and lessons learned from working with homeless people. He tells of his ongoing, unfolding sense of identity and self-actualisation, the potential for which he sees in the lives of the homeless people he works with. Recurring themes of hope, empathy and compassion are seen as keys to unlocking this potential. Coming Home for Good uses examples of personal life experience to discuss "physical, psychological and spiritual homelessness," and to reflect on identity, individuality, addiction and belonging, all of which, while especially pertinent in the context of homelessness, are issues that affect everyone.

Author: Roger Nuttall

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

Publication Date: Nov 18, 2017

Number of Pages: 268 pages

Language: English

Binding: Paperback

ISBN-10: 1978219822

ISBN-13: 9781978219823