Living with Strangers examines the history and cultural representation of bed-sitting rooms and boarding houses in England from the early twentieth century to the present. Providing a historical overview, the authors explore how these alternative domestic spaces came to provide shelter for a diverse demographic of working women and men, retired army officers, gay people, students, bohemians, writers, artists, performers, migrants and asylum seekers, as well as shady figures and criminals. Drawing on historical records, case studies, and examples from literature, art, and film, the book examines how the prevalence and significance of bedsits and boarding houses in novels, plays, detective stories, Ealing comedies, and contemporary fiction and film produced its own genre of narrative. The nine chapters are written by an international range of established and emerging scholars in the fields of literary studies, art and film history, political theory, queer studies and cultural studies. A lively, highly original study, Living with Strangers makes a significant contribution to the cross-disciplinary field of home studies and provides insight into a crucial aspect of British cultural history. It is essential reading for students and researchers in anthropology, history, literary studies, sociology, gender and sexuality studies, film studies and cultural studies.

List of ImagesList of ContributorsAcknowledgementsSeries preface: Why Home?, Rosie Cox and Victor BuchliIntroduction, Chiara Briganti (King's College London, UK) and Kathy Mezei (Simon Fraser University, Canada)1. Aspidistras and Divans: Transient Spaces in the London Novel, 1920s to 1940s, Kathy Mezei (Simon Fraser University, Canada) and Chiara Briganti (King's College London, UK)2. Immortal Apples and Eternal Eggs: Life and Still Life in the Bedsits of Bloomsbury, Hana Leaper (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)3. Writing in a Bedsitter: Muriel Spark and Doris Lessing, Paul Delany (Simon Fraser University, Canada)4. In a Queer Room, 1900-1970, Mark Armstrong (Central Saint Martins and the Royal College of Art, UK)5. Thieves in the House: Ealing Comedy and the Criminal Lodger, Michael Newton (Leiden University, Netherlands)6. Cold Rooms in the Post-War London Novel, Chiara Briganti (King's College London, UK) and Kathy Mezei (Simon Fraser University, Canada)7. London's Post-War Housing Crisis and Detective Fiction, Allingham, Christie, Marsh, June Sturrock (Simon Fraser University, Canada)8. Precarious Living in the Films of Ken Loach, Luke Davies (Tübingen University, Germany)9. Leave to Remain: Bedsits, B&Bs and Borders in Contemporary Fictions of Asylum, Emily Cuming (Liverpool John Moores University, UK)Index