Review
Journalist Platt goes back to grass roots with this fascinating book which compiles a collage of human nature. Drving along the arterial A40 out of London one day, he parks his car in a side street, gets out and has a look around. He becomes curious about what kind of people live on Western Avenue just feet away from what has become a semi-motorway. Then he begins to read about the road's history. Two weeks after stopping in early 1995, he goes back and starts knocking on doors in an attempt to uncover the story of the road.'The houses I had seen beside the road had begun to preoccupy me. If I have learnt anything as a journalist, it is that I can usually persuade people to talk to me. I did not know what I would find on Western Avenue but I came to a decision; I would visit each of the houses beside the road, I would talk to the people who live in them, and I would collect their stories'. Trevor Dodd is the first resident that Platt meets. 'I rang the bell. After a moment the door shuddered. I was confronted by a stocky man in his early thirties. I am writing a book about Western Avenue, I said, and I'd like to talk to you; I felt ridiculous. He looked at me dumbly, his heavy, unshaven face closed like a fist. Are you winding me up? he said, scornfully'. Perservering, Platt finds himself welcomed into several houses along the way, and relates verbatim snatches of the conversations which take place. Interspersed between personal histories are jigsaw pieces of the A40's history since its construction began in 1919. What could turn into a ramble is given definition by the impending demolition of the houses to make way for a new flyover. Platt finds squatters jostling for a stay of execution alongside Housing Association tenants and long-term residents like Mr and Mrs Green who have lived on the road since 1959. Platt adds his own observations and the result, accompanied by striking black and white snaps of the road, has a rare flavour that rewards the author's doggedness. (Kirkus UK)
Product Description
In 1995 the author of "Leadville" stopped his car and took a stroll down Western Avenue. In the 1920s it was a tree-lined suburban boulevard but now it's an urban nightmare. The book focuses on the lives of the people who live there.
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