Reviews
‘A sympathetic 1983 study of Hackney described the borough as “an alien world”, “a bubo of plague”, “a Slough of Despond” and “one of the two or three contenders for the title of The Most Awful Place in Britain” . . . Not so Patrick Wright, who rubs his hands with the same sort of glee on approaching the inner city as Cobbett manifests in Rural Rides as he approaches a town. Here is a city dweller with the gusto of Baudelaire and the eye of Jane Jacobs who, undeterred by dogshit and bullshit, enjoys the chaotic humanity, the ironic architectural juxtapositions, the esprit de jeu of late twentieth century London.’ (David Widgery, Independent on Sunday)
‘A funny and perceptive book which is part oral history and part journalism, part generalization and part scholarship – an intriguing and attractive amalgam.’ (Peter Ackroyd, The Times)
‘What Patrick Wright does superbly in this book is undermine any simplistic view of left-right polarities in the supposed struggle between conservation and modernism. As he points out, it is only in recent decades the two have been viewed as polemically opposed.’ (Damian Furniss, Tears in the Fence)
‘There is no space in a short review to give more than a hint of the intellectual delights of this book. Witty, well written and superbly stimulating, it is a must for everybody’s reading list.’ (Victor Belcher, English Heritage Magazine)
‘Patrick Wright is a wandering disestablished scholar whose method is to walk and talk . . . the most interesting of the young cultural critics.’ (Neal Ascherson)