Amazing review of A Walk in the Park by Andrew Martin in the Financial Times:
‘Travis Elborough is the affectionate chronicler of faded Englishness. He has been described as “the hipster Bill Bryson”, and it is a mystery to some of us why he is not as well-known as Bryson. His books have so far covered the Routemaster bus, the long-playing record, and the sale of London Bridge (“the world’s largest antique”, as he put it) to a Texan millionaire.
Here he tackles public parks. The story of their evolution from aristocratic hunting grounds into public utilities might have taken on the dowdy parochialism often associated with the parks themselves. But Elborough is a social historian who also happens to be funnier than most supposed “humorists”… ‘
Read in full here:
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b07fe36-2bf5-11e6-bf8d-26294ad519fc.html