Since the early 1970s adult literacy projects and classes have developed and published student writing in the UK. Early practitioners responded to the dearth of suitable learning materials and aimed to nurture hidden voices "from below" through a democratic educational process. Based on reading student written publications as well as archive and interview material the author assesses student writing and its associated pedagogy. Although student writing is shown to be closely connected to personal identity and experience, it was also channelled through specific educational and social contexts. The ways in which these books were read also reveal tensions apparent in student publishing. Some of the limitations and obstacles that it faced are discussed alongside the ways in which it has endured in an inhospitable contemporary environment. (Contains 66 footnotes.)