Katharine Hibbert lives in a squat in London. She is an active member of the Advisory Service for Squatters, the only national organisation giving legal and practical advice to squatters and would-be squatters. She is 28 and, as a freelance journalist, has written cover stories for the Guardian's G2 section and for The Sunday Times Magazine.
A fascinating study which proves that waste is aplenty in our consumer society. * The Independent * Free is part squatting guide, part diary and is loaded with statistics. Sometimes it feels as if Hibbert has counted every Pret A Manger sandwich that ended up in a landfill. Her anger at the waste of consumer society is relentless.Over the past year, we have focused on the fall of the bankers, but Free is a reminder that the recession has had an equally dramatic effect on those several rungs below them on the financial ladder. * The Telegraph * In this account of her varied, and largely positive, experiences, Hibbert paints a detailed and often funny self-portrait of a young Londoner who sneaks fox-like around her city, managing to survive off its detritus for a whole year, affording her the time to appreciate her choices and her relative youth more fully than had she stayed in her cosy, domesticated rut * Times Litarary Supplement * Her book is a passionate plea against the rubbish society. It might not be free, but it's worth reading even if you don't find it in a skip. * ROOF - Shelter's Housing Magazine *