Can you tell us a little about yourself and your book?

I’m Alice, a writer, journalist and serial house sharer. After living in eight house shares with 18 different housemates (and a rabbit) over a decade, I’m publishing my first book How to Stay Sane in a House Share (DK Living) because for many years, I struggled to do that.

Since moving to London at 23 to pursue my career in journalism, I’ve lived in many different homes with a constellation of different housemates. It has been fun and wonderful and I made life long friends through the house shares I lived in. But I also faced challenge after challenge in house shares that I felt totally unequipped to deal with. From moving in with strangers who had very different lifestyles to me, to living with a friend and not knowing how to deal with the conflict that arose between us - I became so aware of this knowledge gap on how to house share well that I wanted to do something about it.

There are so many books on how to date better through knowing yourself and sharpening your communication skills. We needed one on how to house share well - that’s the book I’ve written.

How important was Falcon Enamelware within your book and what is your favourite product?

I grew up with Falcon tins, they were a staple at childhood mealtimes and so, when I moved into my first house share, getting a set of my own was a rite of passage.

I was learning to cook for myself and many of my go-to recipes were my mum’s - it felt only right that they were baked or served in a tin just like hers.

But the type of home I was creating was far from the one I’d imagined I’d have in my twenties. I naively expected that I’d have a house and a family by 25. Instead, I was moving between house shares, carrying my precious enamel tins between flats and sharing meals cooked in them between multiple different housemates and various ‘side characters.’

When I was trying to capture this generational shift and the disparity between my expectations and my reality in the book, the falcon tin was a powerful device. This functional kitchen item became imbued in significance. Because for me, this tin was a symbol of a kind of home I thought I’d have but didn’t. And at the same time, it was a symbol of connection. These tins had been centre stage of all the house dinners I shared with housemates and though it wasn’t what I’d expected, I realised I’d created my own family of sorts.

Looking at my homes through the lens of this enamel tin became a playful way for me to write about some of the more serious topics I tackle in the book: generational shifts, the housing crisis, the gender pay gap.

It also allowed me to capture the wonderful connection you find in house shares. It was those evenings where food was baked and served in the enamel tin, laid out on our rickety kitchen table and served my housemates and attached friends or partners - that for years, has given me a real sense of home in my shared houses.

Do you agree that cooking is a labour of love?

I do. And I believe it’s even more so in a house share. It’s very easy to live quite separate lives and not take the time to get to know one another so cooking becomes an opportunity for connection. In so many of my house shares, cooking for one another is how we’ve shown love and care for each other. These rituals have been the beginning of friendships formed in house shares and a key part of maintaining healthy relations in the house share.

In a setting where you’re thrown together by a rent contract, meal times and ‘house dinners’ unite housemates, cooking in the kitchen alongside each other is an opportunity for many moments of connection.

My falcon tin was at the centre of all of that action. It was the biggest one we owned in a house I lived in for four years and became known as ‘The Big Roasting Tin’ - we’d all take it in turns to use it for our batch cooking. It was the work horse of tins and sat in the centre of the table at many house dinners, season after season, year after year. After eight house shares, and many many meals, I still have it today.

 

What do you think readers will take away from your book?

My hope is that readers will feel less alone in the challenges they face in house shares. House shares can be fun and offer huge opportunity for friendship and connection but I believe that we need to learn the skills necessary to navigate the niggles to truly reap the benefits of that. I think readers will find genuinely useful advice on how to approach and handle difficult situations better. I hope it makes people feel less ‘stuck’ in a house share, which is a phrase I hear so often.

I also hope it helps us to rebrand house shares, to shake off some of the stigma and begin to see it as a living situation in its own right - a place we can, and should, call our home and invest in. When we breathe life into the space and the people that we live with I think we can start to truly appreciate house shares. My book outlines the tools we need in order to do that.

 

What were your inspirations/motivations?

My inspiration for this book came from friends in house shares and fellow house sharers - and it was those conversations that kept me motivated through the writing process. I spoke to over thirty women about their house shares and listened to wonderful stories of fun and connection - but also heard how lost they felt. So many small situations in house shares with housemates that had left them uneasy, not knowing how to approach or resolve them. If we can learn how to navigate these, we can surely start to feel more at ease in our shared homes.

 

I'm also inspired daily by writers and journalists who interrogate the way we live now and look at how it is shaping us and explore how we can exercise the power we have to make our lives a little better. I believe writers and creatives have a huge role to play in helping us to make sense of the systems that dictate so much of the way we live - and make meaningful lives within them.
 

How will your enamelware serve you in the future?

To this day I love nothing more than inviting friends to sit round whatever size table I have, whoever my housemates are, whatever house share I’m in, wherever that house may be and cooking for them. Without knowing it, those Falcon enamelware tins have been the centrepiece of those moments for many years. I don’t envisage that ever changing and I imagine my Falcon enamelware will be at the centre of it all for many, many years to come.

How to Stay Sane in a House Share by Alice WIlkinson (DK Red) is out 6 March 2025 > https://www.dk.com/uk/book/9780241722299-how-to-stay-sane-in-a-house-share/