A Year in the Life: Adventures in British Subcultures

In her late twenties and already a partner in her headhunting firm, Lucy Leonelli was seemingly on top of the world, but despite her success she couldn’t shake the feeling she was missing out on life out there . So Lucy did the only reasonable thing she could she hung up her suit and set out on a year-long journey to uncover her most authentic self. Stepping outside her comfort zone, she turned to twenty-six little-understood subcultures of the UK – communities often heard about but very seldom seen. For two weeks each, she lived with battle re-enactors, circus performers, hill baggers, Morris dancers, naturists, trainspotters, yogis, zeitgeist political activists and more, experiencing first-hand their social rituals and customs. A Year in the Life charts Lucy’s adventure as she swam naked with lawyers and vets, cast spells with teachers and IT consultants, dressed in tight latex, drank with self-proclaimed vampires and fought the undead in an epic LARP battle. It tells of the importance of community in an increasingly isolating society; of the unquenchable human thirst for a sense of belonging; of how misguided our own prejudices can be; and of how when we open the door to others, we might just learn something about ourselves.