When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the government launched its ‘Everyone In’ programme, aiming to house the homeless through lockdown. What this meant for the Prince Rupert, a four-star hotel in Shrewsbury, was that they were asked to host 33 rough sleepers through months of lockdown. It was a move that transformed the lives of everyone involved. 

The heartbreaking and heartwarming story of the Prince Rupert is captured in a new book by Sunday Times journalist, Christina Lamb. You can see her in a discussion about homelessness with fellow author, Daniel Lavelle, whose own book, Down and Out, draws on his own experiences of homelessness.

About The Journalist

Headshot of author Christina Lamb

Christina Lamb

Christina Lamb is one of Britain’s leading foreign correspondents and a bestselling  author. She has won 14 major awards including five times being named Foreign Correspondent of the Year and winning Europe’s top war reporting prize, the Prix Bayeux. She is the author of numerous books including Farewell Kabul, The Africa House, Waiting for Allah, The Sewing Circles of Herat and House of Stone. She co-wrote the international bestseller I Am Malala with Malala Yousafzai and The Girl from Aleppowith Nujeen Mustafa. She is a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, an honorary fellow of University College, Oxford and was awarded an OBE in 2013.

About The Author

Danielle Lavelle Headshot

Daniel Lavelle

Daniel Lavelle is a freelance feature writer from Manchester. He left care at nineteen and experienced homelessness for the first time not long after. He graduated from Manchester Metropolitan University with a BA in History while he was living in a homeless hostel.

 He has an MA in Journalism from Goldsmiths and in 2017 he received the Guardian’s Hugo Young award for an opinion piece on his experience of homelessness. Daniel writes regularly on topics such as mental health,

homelessness and culture for the Guardian and has written for New Statesman and the Independent. ‘The Empty Doorway’ which he co-authored won Feature of the Year at the British Journalism Awards 2019 and was shortlisted for a National Press Award. He lives in London.