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Russell Hodge

‘Living on the streets: I’ll never forget the kindness of strangers’
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About Russell Hodge

Russell Hodge was a well-known, Sydney corporate lawyer who has had an extraordinary life the last few years. Russell was living life in the fast lane and then in June 2011, he impulsively resigned as a director of REX Airlines and plunged himself into self-imposed retirement. By the following June he was standing in Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris aged 66 years, a world away from his home in Cronulla, about to embark on a six-month study trip at Sorbonne University. What followed was a series of heartbreaking events that led to him sleeping homeless on the streets of Sydney, estranged from his family and friends and struggling with a severe mental illness. In particular it was his friendship with a destitute young woman in Paris that radically changed his opinion of himself. Russell’s new book, a memoir entitled The Oldest Student at the Sorbonne, is a thought provoking tale about one man’s self-reflective journey from high flying deals, to friendships with gypsies and beggars in Paris and then to the homeless community in Sydney.