Outskirts – a book about the green belt
So, I have a book deal for my next (and as yet unwritten) project! Outskirts: Living Life on the Edge of the Green Belt is an attempt to tell the history of this peculiar, much-loved and also controversial tract of land. And alongside that there will be the story of what it was like growing up on the edge of it.
It seems crazy to me that despite all of the interest in the green belt there isn't a book that tells its story for a general readership in an approachable way. It's much the same impulse that drew me to write Concretopia too. And so I'm now surrounded by lots of beautiful (and some not quite so beautiful) old books telling me different things about the origins and growth of the green belt. I'm really looking forward to getting stuck in.
The inclusion of my family's story, moving out from Battersea to the edge of the green belt a month before I was born back in 1970, was inspired by readers of this site, who reacted so positively to this rather uncharacteristic piece I wrote about my mum and dad and Croydon's now demolished Taberner House. And so alongside the bigger history I'll be bringing in some more personal tales too.
Yesterday came the announcement that Sceptre, the brilliant literary list at Hodder, has bought Outskirts to publish. I am massively chuffed. Now all I have to do is write it...
As with Concretopia, Outskirts will require some travelling and interviews, and so once again I'm on the lookout for people to speak to, this time about the origins and early days of the green belt: planners who worked on it back in the 50s and 60s; people whose family's land was bought or came under the control of the local authority as a result of green belt legislation; and people with brilliant, odd or quirky stories connected to the green belt, and its mysterious (and not always very green) secrets.
If you have a green belt story or contact that you think might be of interest, and you'd like to get in touch, I'd be delighted to hear from you. My email is john [dot] grindrod [at] gmail [dot] com, or I'm on Twitter at @Grindrod or Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/Concretopia
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| 1962 brochure produced by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government |
The inclusion of my family's story, moving out from Battersea to the edge of the green belt a month before I was born back in 1970, was inspired by readers of this site, who reacted so positively to this rather uncharacteristic piece I wrote about my mum and dad and Croydon's now demolished Taberner House. And so alongside the bigger history I'll be bringing in some more personal tales too.
Yesterday came the announcement that Sceptre, the brilliant literary list at Hodder, has bought Outskirts to publish. I am massively chuffed. Now all I have to do is write it...
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| Frederic Osborn's classic Green Belt Cities |
If you have a green belt story or contact that you think might be of interest, and you'd like to get in touch, I'd be delighted to hear from you. My email is john [dot] grindrod [at] gmail [dot] com, or I'm on Twitter at @Grindrod or Facebook via https://www.facebook.com/Concretopia
John I'm working my way through Concretopia and enjoying it very much. Apparently Octavia Hill proposed a green belt for London in 1875 although I think Elizabeth I had a similar idea. Many of us who work inhuming think the green belt has had a wholly malign impact upon many towns and cities and I've written many articles on the subject. I can point you to these and others if it helps.
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