In the latest episode of our flagship series My Place, the British musician, writer, and activist invites director Barbara Anastacio into his tranquil home—where he talks about the writing life and his colorful memories of a punk rock past.

In 1968, Rimbaud began renting an old farmhouse in the English countryside and cultivated what would become the Dial House—a series of cabins spread across a rural, rural setting—which became the setting for a collective based on the ideals of communal living.

Almost ten years later, Rimbaud formed anarcho-punk band Crass with collaborators Gee Vaucher and Steve Ignorant. The band would go on to become one of the most influential alternative groups of the twentieth century, with music based on the ideals of political autonomy and left-wing rebellion, which Rimbaud had initially forged in his countryside estate.

Today, almost 50 years later, the utopian, anti-authoritarian vision is still going strong—with everyone from Björk to members of the Red Army Faction having passed through the countryside community's doors. This is embodied in Rimbaud's near self-sufficient home, filled of mementos from a raging past and tchotchkes of schools of progressive thought. 

Since 2000, Rimbaud has been based mostly in a single wooden cabin on the estate's grounds, devoting himself almost entirely to writing—and not talking to his plants.