A former homeless man who spent years selling the Big Issue on the streets of Cambridge has won a place to study English literature at the city’s world-renowned university.

Geoff Edwards, 52, who left school with two O-levels and few ambitions, has begun his studies at Hughes Hall, Cambridge.

A lifelong passion for reading, fostered in him by his parents when he was growing up in Liverpool, sustained him through years of itinerant farm work, unemployment, depression and homelessness. Now it has taken him to one of the best universities in the world.

“I can’t say it’s what I always dreamed of because I didn’t really ever think of the university,” he said. “But to have lived in this town for a while, and to get the chance to finally go behind those doors, is a privilege.”

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Edwards grew up during the Thatcher years when unemployment was high in his home city. His father was a postman and his mother worked in an office. There were always books in the house and from a young age he enjoyed reading.

He said though that he did not like school and he left Birkenhead Institute, in Wirral, with O-levels in mathematics and English language but a U, or “unclassified”, in English literature, having studied the Merchant of Venice and John Wyndham’s The Chrysalids. “I couldn’t wait to get out of it really,” he said.

With little prospect of work in Liverpool, he left the city with no thought of pursuing his education. “I didn’t know anybody who stayed on or went on to university. People didn’t back then.”

He worked mainly on farms, in Kent, Gloucestershire, Scotland and Cambridge, camping where he found work and moving on when it ran out, always with a book on the go.

When he arrived in Cambridge he began living in squats when possible and on the streets when not, picking up books from libraries and charity shops – everything from Jack Kerouac to William Burroughs and John Steinbeck. “It’s a brilliant way of just escaping, really,” he said.

With help from homeless charities he began to sell the Big Issue, saving up £20 to go to London on Mondays to pick up the magazines, which he then sold on the streets of the city for the rest of the week.

After a number of years he was housed, but he became depressed and isolated. “I realised things needed to change so I went to see the local college to see if I could get back into education.”

Three years ago, at Cambridge Regional College, he began a gateway course, which then led to an access course, in which he gained distinctions for every subject. His tutor recommended he try for Cambridge and last month he took up his place.

Back from a lecture on practical criticism, he said: “Getting my head round that is hard.” Also on the curriculum this term was medieval literature, Chaucer and Shakespeare. “Chaucer’s losing its appeal a bit,” he said. “I’m looking forward to things becoming a bit more modern.”

He added: “The essay writing is a big step up from the access course. I knew that when I started. It’s pretty intense. It’s like a 40-hour week of reading and writing. It does feel a bit weird. It’s still like … Cambridge! They are trying to encourage people from more different backgrounds to study at Cambridge, and good on them.”

Jannah Abdulayem, 25, also a CRC access student, who arrived in the city from Syria at the age of 19, has also won a place at Hughes Hall, to study human, social and political sciences.



She said: “I have loved learning in England. It is completely different to Syria where everything is about learning things off by heart. I have never really been seen as clever because of the teaching methods in Syria, but to know I am clever enough to get into Cambridge is amazing.”