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Overview"A journey from White City to the Hanger Lane Gyratory ""One afternoon in January 1995 as I drove along Western Avenue I did what I had never done before i parked the car in a side-street and walked on to the road..."" In Leadville, Ed Platt tells the story of Western Avenue from the optimism of its construction in the 1920s to its partial demolition seventy years later. It is a tale of the city and the traffic, of suburbia and the dreams of its inhabitants, and of our senseless and all-consuming love affair with the motor car." Full Product DetailsAuthor: Edward PlattPublisher: Pan Macmillan Imprint: Picador Edition: New edition Dimensions: Width: 12.70cm , Height: 1.80cm , Length: 20.30cm Weight: 0.336kg ISBN: 9780330392631ISBN 10: 0330392638 Pages: 304 Publication Date: 04 May 2001 Recommended Age: From 18 years Audience: General/trade , General Format: Paperback Publisher's Status: Active Availability: Manufactured on demand  We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier. Table of ContentsReviews"""'Platt has created a drama that is not only Orwellian in its attention to what you might call the state of the nation... but almost Dickensian in the recording of the colour and pathos of its inhabitants' Tim Lott, The Times""" Journalist Platt goes back to grass roots with this fascinating book which compiles a collage of human nature. Drving along the arterial A40 out of London one day, he parks his car in a side street, gets out and has a look around. He becomes curious about what kind of people live on Western Avenue just feet away from what has become a semi-motorway. Then he begins to read about the road's history. Two weeks after stopping in early 1995, he goes back and starts knocking on doors in an attempt to uncover the story of the road.'The houses I had seen beside the road had begun to preoccupy me. If I have learnt anything as a journalist, it is that I can usually persuade people to talk to me. I did not know what I would find on Western Avenue but I came to a decision; I would visit each of the houses beside the road, I would talk to the people who live in them, and I would collect their stories'. Trevor Dodd is the first resident that Platt meets. 'I rang the bell. After a moment the door shuddered. I was confronted by a stocky man in his early thirties. I am writing a book about Western Avenue, I said, and I'd like to talk to you; I felt ridiculous. He looked at me dumbly, his heavy, unshaven face closed like a fist. Are you winding me up? he said, scornfully'. Perservering, Platt finds himself welcomed into several houses along the way, and relates verbatim snatches of the conversations which take place. Interspersed between personal histories are jigsaw pieces of the A40's history since its construction began in 1919. What could turn into a ramble is given definition by the impending demolition of the houses to make way for a new flyover. Platt finds squatters jostling for a stay of execution alongside Housing Association tenants and long-term residents like Mr and Mrs Green who have lived on the road since 1959. Platt adds his own observations and the result, accompanied by striking black and white snaps of the road, has a rare flavour that rewards the author's doggedness. (Kirkus UK) 'Platt has created a drama that is not only Orwellian in its attention to what you might call the state of the nation... but almost Dickensian in the recording of the colour and pathos of its inhabitants' Tim Lott, The Times Author InformationEdward Platt was born in 1968 and lives in London. His first book, Leadville, won a Somerset Maugham Award and the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize. He is also the author of The Great Flood which explores the way floods have shaped the physical landscape of Britain, and The City of Abraham, a journey through Hebron, the only place in the West Bank where Palestinians and Israelis lived side by side. Tab Content 6Author Website:Countries AvailableAll regions |
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