Wandering Scribe

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Wandering Scribe is the internet name of a blogger who published under the name of Anya Peters, who claims to have been a homeless woman. She came to the attention of the public in April 2006, when her blog was featured in an article in the New York Times and by the BBC in their online magazine. ^[1]

Anya Peters described herself as a law graduate, who had come to be homeless after a mental breakdown following a bad relationship and debts. She claimed to be living in her car in some woods in central London, taking showers in a local hospital, receiving benefits from the British government, and going out of her way to present the appearance to members of the public that she was not homeless.

She further claimed that her personal pride and fear prevented her from accepting any form of assistance from the authorities and that there were no friends or family to whom she could turn. The blog's author also mentioned that she had written an (unpublished) novel and that she harboured feelings of jealousy for another homeless blogger who had received some sort of book deal because attention was drawn to his plight. In one post, Anya wondered whether any "blog trawling" literary agents might read her blog.

The blog is written in a 'stream of consciousness' style, with some spelling and grammatical errors. Frequently, posts are very long but captivating to read. The blogger makes occasional references to an unhappy childhood.

Anya claimed to have been rescued from her situation when a literary agent spotted her blog after it appeared as the subject of a magazine article by the BBC online and was impressed by her writing skills. The blog reports how she had been commissioned to write a full length book but did not reveal the subject matter beyond saying that it concerned how she became homeless. The BBC published another article saying that the blogger had "written herself out" of her situation.

Since this Anya made only a handful of new posts, in which she mentions that she is no longer homeless and including a lengthy post in which she describes a visit to her father in Ireland, where she tells him about her upcoming autobiography.

The book was subsequently advertised on Amazon UK as being titled "Abandoned" and being an autobiography of Anya Peters abusive childhood.