Estates: An Intimate History - Softcover

Hanley, Lynsey

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1783783826 ISBN 13: 9781783783823

Publisher: Granta Books, 2017

Synopsis

Lynsey Hanley was born and raised just outside of Birmingham on what was then the largest council estate in Europe, and she has lived for years on an estate in London's East End. Writing with passion, humour and a sense of history, she recounts the rise of social housing a century ago, its adoption as a fundamental right by leaders of the social welfare state in the mid-century and its decline - as both idea and reality - in the 1960s and '70s. Throughout, Hanley focuses on how shifting trends in urban planning and changing government policies - from Homes Fit for Heroes to Le Corbusier's concrete tower blocks, to the Right to Buy - affected those so often left out of the argument over council estates: the millions of people who live on them. What emerges is a vivid mix of memoir and social history, an engaging and illuminating book about a corner of society that the rest of Britain has left in the dark.

About this title

Review:

"(A) passionate and engaging book... I think Hanley's book is
destined to create a watershed in British housing policy" -- Observer

"(An) engrossing story of council housing since the war... (an)
absorbing book"
-- The Times (Roy Hattersley)

"A highly engaging book" -- Book Magazine

"A rich, thought-provoking book"
-- The Observer

"An account of council housing (that is) not just readable but
interesting and moving" -- Scotland on Sunday

"Articulate, savage, poignant, engaged and vividly descriptive" -- Sunday Times

"Hanley writes with an ironic, characteristically Brummie sense of
humour and cutting sarcasm, which makes the book colourfully readable." -- New Statesman

"This study of the rise and decline of council housing is fuelled
by unusual passion and vision" -- Evening Standard

"Written with a passion born of first-hand experience, the author
takes a commendably balanced view... humble, honest and, yes, intimate" -- The List

Hanley's Estates is many things - social history, memoir, mild
polemic... honest, informed and never whimsical... well-timed and truthful
-- Telegraph (Andy Miller)

About the Author:

LYNSEY HANLEY was born in Birmingham and now lives in London. She regularly writes for the Observer, Telegraph, New Statesman and many others. Estates: An Intimate History is her first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1783783826
• ISBN 13: 9781783783823
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 288