It's July 2003. A tropical heat wave is raging and old people are dropping like flies in Paris. The Sampsons move from their happy home into a caravan that thinks it's a sauna. In 12 months they must build a house of straw on terrain as rocky as their practical credentials... To anyone who struggles to pitch a tent, the prospect of building a grand design of straw bales - in France Profonde - could be somewhat unsettling. Some will tell you that building their own home is an enjoyable and rewarding experience; Mark Sampson will tell you it was hellish. Based on his journal of building the...