Edna, the Inebriate Woman was written when Jeremy Sandford, whose documentary Cathy Come Home had focused public attention on the plight of homeless families, decided to study the equally grave problems faced by Britain’s thousands of single homeless people. The author follows Edna on her continuous journey through town and country and shows us at first hand the shortcomings and sheer absurdities of a society whose response to Edna’s predicament is insensitive, inappropriate and expensive. Sandford’s own anger and impatience with our reluctance to help those who wander through the twilight world at the bottom of society is infectious.