London appears in August Epp’s account of a life uprooted by bereavement and instability. It is where he was studying history after his father disappeared and his mother died, before leaving university and joining a group of anarchists, artists, and musicians who occupied derelict land in Wandsworth. The memory gives the city a place in his personal history, distinct from the colony where the women’s meeting unfolds.

A Period of Displacement

August recalls that, after his father disappeared and his mother died, he had nowhere to live. He was attending university and taking history classes in London when he suffered a nervous breakdown and quit his studies. The account links the city not simply with education, but with a moment when bereavement, homelessness, and the interruption of his academic life converge.

Wandsworth and the Squat

After leaving university, August joined anarchists, artists, and musicians living on derelict land near Gargoyle Wharf in Wandsworth, beside the Thames. The description narrows from London to a specific riverside setting, but supplies no further account of the group’s organization or the conditions of the squat. It marks a change in August’s circumstances: he left formal study and entered a shared life with people occupying unused land.

Memory and the Present Conversation

August recounts this earlier period to Ona Friesen, explaining how he came to live among the squatters. He also connects it to his love of ducks, which he learned there. In jail, he had spoken about semi-aquatic birds, a subject that could expose him to a beating; he later acknowledged to Ona that he should have kept the detail to himself. Ona’s response turns the memory toward the difficulty of concealing what one loves. London and Wandsworth thus enter the narrative through a recollection that joins August’s past displacement to his present effort to explain himself.