… A True Story of Love and Compassion Amid a Pandemic
Synopsis (from book cover):
When Covid-19 hit the UK and lockdown was declared, Mike Matthews wondered how his historic four-star hotel would survive. Then Shrewsbury Council called. The British government had launched a programme called ‘Everyone In’ and 33 rough sleepers needed beds. The Prince Rupert would end up taking in more than 100 homeless people for over a year – many of whom had spent decades on the streets.
This is the astonishing account of how the hotel owner, manager and accountant and their unlikely new guests spent months locked in together and wound up transforming each other’s lives.
Review:
As we get to know the homeless people who were temporary guests at the Prince Rupert Hotel, I found the book is heartwarming, uplifting and sad in equal measures
Many of the homeless were traumatised, addicts or suffered with mental illness. We learn of their struggles and how some were able to lift themselves up to a better life whilst others were unable to break from their addictions.
The compassion, and sometimes frustration of the three hosts to the homeless shines through as does the generosity of the local people and businesses.
I thoroughly recommend this book, it gives an insight to how these ‘rough sleepers’ ended up sleeping on the streets and why some of them even when given opportunities are unable (or choose not to) to change their situation.
Wow, this sounds like an incredible book and I loved Christina Lamb’s House of Stone. I’m going to get this straight away
As Shrewsbury is local to me I found it especially interesting. I wondered if had encountered any of the people in the book on my visits to Shrewsbury.
Oh I just got back from Luxembourg last night.
All public transport there was FREE!
But I noticed many homeless folks sleeping in the trains/ trams/ buses.
A lot safer for them than in the street where appaling things can happen to them.
Love and compassion, sounds like a wonderful story. Unfortunately, we could be kinder to the homeless in this country than we are. It seems that in general, the UK has more of a heart, in many ways
Sadly, I don’t think that most people in the UK are kind to homeless people.
It is also difficult to distinguish from a genuinely homeless person and someone has chosen to be homeless or just beg on the streets as a lifestyle choice.