Ground Control

Nov 17, 2024 2:57 AM

Author:Anna Minton

Ground Control

In Ground Control Anna Minton reveals the untested - and unwanted - urban planning that is changing not only our cities, but the nature of public space, of citizenship and of trust.

Britain's streets have been transformed by the construction of new property - but it's owned by private corporations, designed for profit and watched over by CCTV. Have these gleaming business districts, mega malls and gated developments led to 'regeneration', or have they intensified social divisions and made us more fearful of each other?

Now with a new chapter on the 2012 London Olympic legacy and Britain's housing collapse, Anna Minton's acclaimed and passionate polemic shows us the face of Britain today.

'They sold our streets and nobody noticed ... timely and powerful ... revelatory' Observer

'A sustained, informed, articulate, timely work of rage ... Anna Minton has put her finger on one of the most profound and disturbing shifts in modern British cities' Evening Standard

'A damning study of how Britain is curbing freedoms ... Minton is a brilliant journalist ... a vital book' Daily Telegraph

'Eye-opening, unsettling ... A wonderful, timely analysis that reveals another, more sinister side to "gentrification"' Financial Times

Reviews

Anna Minton has done us a service with this book . . . compelling

—— The Sunday Times

A sharp and urgent anaylsis of our changing towns and cities

—— Metro

A timely and powerful study . . . revelatory

—— Guardian

Compelling . . . raises important questions about the meaning of liberty in contemporary society and what we are prepared to defend today

—— Times

Impressively engaging...it will be the rare music lover that does not come away without having learned many interesting things

—— Guardian

Ball....proves as comfortable discussing the science of music as its cultural and artistic dimensions... This thought-provoking book answers many questions, and leaves a few hanging tantalisingly behind as well

—— Financial Times

Remarkable capacity to use words to open our ears

—— Sunday Telegraph

This book surveys current thinking and tells you why music rocks

—— Iain Finlayson , The Times

Bestriding with equal ease the very different disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology, the author answers com amore the questions posed in the subtitle of this important book. A remarkable achievement.

—— Classic FM Magazine

The author breaks new (to me) ground

—— Sunday Telegraph

As prolific as he is profound, Philip Ball weaves science into culture with a dexterity and virtuosity that avoid any sense of overstretch... Ball can truly make scholarship sing.

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

The year's most unusual travel book

—— Tom Chesshyre , The Times

[An] eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book

—— Daily Telegraph

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a lyrical triumph. On Britain’s grotty margins, the duo trace “desire paths” to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

Throw out your old atlas. The new version is here

—— Walter Kirn (author of UP IN THE AIR)

Kasarda ... and Lindsay convincingly put the airport at the centre of modern urban life

—— Economist

Highly recommended

—— Library Journal

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