I'm delighted because it raises awareness of what homelessness is really all about."The book has been so well received that he has already written off this year's OU studies. "I was then able to send it to an agent, who later told me there had been an auction - four publishers wanted to buy it. Shut up, will you!"The book itself first attracted attention when Masters, 39, submitted it for an Arts Council competition and won £7,000 and a minor publishing deal. "What Stuart means when he says it's not the cold or the hardness of the streets that drives you crazy," wrote Masters of their Home Office vigil, "is that it's the other people It's the people like fucking Stuart, ranting and raving. We did it for three days, and that was enough for me."The secret of Masters' book is that it does not pigeon-hole Stuart. He's intelligent, but often stupid; thoughtful but reckless; philosophical but violent; a victim of circumstance, yet his own worst enemy.

And it's clear there were some days the two men couldn't stand each other. "We got a lot of publicity, but he also did it because he wanted me to have just a little idea of what it's like to be homeless. Masters' colleagues Ruth Wyner, the director of Cambridge's Wintercomfort centre for the homeless, and her day centre manager John Brock had been given five- and four-year jail terms (later reduced after an appeal) because drug dealing had taken place at the venue.Fellow staff and supporters had immediately launched a campaign to get them freed, but at the first public meeting, among all the well-meaning, well-dressed attendees, it was scruffy, chaotic Stuart who spoke the most sense and gave campaign leader Masters some of the most practical ideas for drawing attention to the pair's plight."It was Stuart who suggested we camp outside the Home Office," said Masters, from Wickham Market, near Ipswich. There were times when we couldn't stand each other, and we'd argue, but I was never frightened of him He was an intelligent man, and empathetic.

"We either see them as a group of people to love and we excuse them for everything they do, or to hate. Getting to know Stuart as an individual - one who was very intelligent but could also do and say very stupid things - taught me a lot about the lives that homeless people really lead, rather than the perception we have of them."Although he had a violent history, I didn't see any reason to treat him any differently from anyone else. If I'd had a go at him he would tell me later that it upset him, but he would also apologise if he'd been out of order."Masters first saw Stuart begging on the streets of Cambridge in 1999, but it was the following year that he really came to the student's attention, when Masters was working in a hostel for the city's homeless. For much of it is in Stuart's words, and tells of how he and Masters gradually earned each other's respect and learned from each other - and worked on the book together."It struck me that there were very few accurate descriptions of homeless people," said Masters, a Cambridge University physics graduate who is two years into his maths MSc with the OU.