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Estates: An Intimate History [Illustrated] (Paperback)

by Lynsey Hanley (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 256 pages
  • Publisher: Granta Books; illustrated edition edition (18 Jan 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1862079099
  • ISBN-13: 978-1862079090
  • Product Dimensions: 21.3 x 13.5 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 137,608 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #36 in  Books > Society, Politics & Philosophy > Social Sciences > Urban & Rural Planning > City & Town Planning

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Product Description

Review

'A wonderful mix of personal and cultural history, this is a profound and fascinating book' Alexander Masters 'Articulate, savage, poignant, engaged and vividly descriptive. Hanley is as outspoken as she is unsentimental, [and] she writes social policy as if it were a branch of war reporting' Simon Jenkins, Sunday Times 'An engrossing story of council housing since the war... An absorbing book' Roy Hattersley, The Times 'An odd and obsessive book... Hanley herself was lucky and escaped the grim estate she grew up on, which she describes (memorably) in passages that read more like Lorna Sage's Bad Blood or Andrea Ashworth's Once in a House on Fire than as a work of sociology.' Blake Morrison, Guardian 'This study of the rise and decline of council housing is fuelled by unusual passion and vision' Evening Standard 'An account of council housing [that is] not just readable but interesting and moving' Scotland on Sunday 'Hanley's vivid, powerful book is about a dream gone sour... Her descriptions of hopelessness, drunkenness and yobbery in Tower Hamlets cry out to be engraved by a new Hogarth' Independent 'A rich, thought-provoking book... The heart of it lies in her vivid descriptions of how the physical walls of council estates can create and sustain what she calls 'walls in the head'... She unflinchingly details the the effects of an isolated, insular, monotonous, monocultural environment... It's partly harrowing and partly cheering and it's a tale well worth keeping somewhere in mind the next time you're laughing at Vicky Pollard' Observer 'Estates, a journey through the world of British social housing, is both a history and a personal reckoning... Hanley's referential framework is ample, bringing in an international angle while not forgetting the very British nature of the story. On the personal side, the story is made compelling by her closeness to the subject and fascination with class structure' Financial Times 'Both a solid history of public housing for the working class and a touching first hand memoir... The beauty of Hanley's book is in its mixture of diligent research and vivid personal memoirs... Depending on your past you'll read it with a thrill of recognition or a sense of revelation. A tremendous debut' Word 'Both illuminating and beautifully written' Spectator * '(A) passionate and engaging book... I think Hanley's book is destined to create a watershed in British housing policy; it's a slow-burn version of BBC's famous Cathy Come Home, the devastating 1966 drama about the destruction of a family through poverty and lack of housing which raised the profile of Shelter, launched just two weeks after the play was shown' The Observer (Will Hutton)


Telegraph (Andy Miller)

Hanley's Estates is many things - social history, memoir, mild
polemic... honest, informed and never whimsical... well-timed and truthful
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Customer Reviews

14 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (14 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You do need to read this. , 27 Mar 2007
By A. Miles (Al Khor, Qatar) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
This is an important book which illuminates the lie of the New Labour meritocracy deal - in short, how can one aspire to a better lifestyle when conditions conspire to make you unaware that anything better might exist, and simultaneously rob you of any opportunity to succeed?

In my time I've lived and taught on sink estates, and if anything Hanley understates the case - I've worked with kids in The North East who at 18 had never been further than the end of the street, and moreover didn't feel any urge to. Hanley captures this well with her 'wall' metaphor.

However, worthy as it is, the mix of personal history, invective and evidence that Hanley presents is indigestible - she isn't really readable. Not the point, of course, but still so.
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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A unique first-person account of our post-war 'ghettoes', 14 Feb 2007
Having lived on two council estates in my time, I recognise much of the landscape that Lynsey Hanley describes. As the title suggests, the descriptions of her own experiences of living on estates are emotional, often angry, sometimes comic, but not sensational. Hanley also provides a potted history of the rise and rapid decline of the estate, both architecturally and socially. She goes to town on the planners and politicians responsible for cheaply constructed, poorly maintained housing, as well as the arch modernists who, she maintains, put high ideals ahead of basic well-being. This book seems to be aimed at a general audience, but social historians and town planners would find value in Hanley's passionate and vivid account of post-war planning gone wrong. Highly recommended!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars You gotta go there to come back, 1 Sep 2007
By Bob Sherunkle (London, UK) - See all my reviews
This is a fascinating view of life on council estates. Lynsey Hanley grew up on a vast estate in Birmingham, and now lives in Tower Hamlets. (It appears that part of her motivation for staying in the Tower Hamlets estate is to become an agent of change.) Her key arguments are:
-There is a common view that most people who live on Council estates are by nature anti-social. She argues that the condition of many estates is a factor encouraging anti-social behaviour. If you have been dumped in sub-standard housing on the edge of town, what motivation do you have to be a model citizen?
-Public housing is not necessarily bad. Some other European countries achieve a better standard than the UK. (However, she overlooks the banlieux of Paris, which manage to achieve racial ghettos as effectively as anywhere in this country.)
-Generally council houses are better to live in than council flats
-Architects and planners are past masters at producing award-winning monstrosities which they themselves would not live in (other than as a publicity stunt)
[These last two are not new views and are definitely not rocket science. However, it does absolutely no harm to emphasise them.]

The strongest metaphor in the book is "the wall in the head", which was originally used to describe the cultural conflict between East and West Germans long after the Berlin Wall disappeared.

There is an extensive explanation of how the provision of municipal housing paralleled the rise and fall of the Welfare State overall.

A challenging view, which makes you question your assumptions as to why council estates are the way they are.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars An insight into Council Estate Living
Gives an insight into the author's experiences of living on council estates. Also provides details of the historical origins of council houses, the more recent sales of properties... Read more
Published 5 months ago by J. Wood

4.0 out of 5 stars Social History par excellence
A fascinating trawl through the history of social housing provision in the UK since the construction of the historic Boundary Estate in Bethnal Green in 1893. Read more
Published 7 months ago by R. A. Langham

5.0 out of 5 stars Provocative, urgent and necessary
Estates is part personal history, part polemic, part social history. Lynsey Hanley expertly balances these competing themes to produce a book that is thoughtful, lively and... Read more
Published 8 months ago by J A C Corbett

5.0 out of 5 stars The story of a life
Both of the concept of council housing and the author's own. Keenly felt, written with absolute conviction, this is compelling stuff. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Riccardo Warner

2.0 out of 5 stars Not as good as the other reviewers suggest
This book doesn't quite work. It seeks to be a personal memoir and an account of public housing policies but falls short in both. Read more
Published 19 months ago by Avid

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent and refreshing
Lynsey Hanley has written a refreshingly personal and honest book in "Estates", which is partly a history of social housing in the UK and partly a personal account of her own... Read more
Published 20 months ago by Eric Ambleside

3.0 out of 5 stars Good but assumes readers are socialists

This was a good book to read, and it gives a great analysis of housing policy and conditions over the past 100 years in Britain. Read more
Published 21 months ago by S. A. Richmond

5.0 out of 5 stars Everyone Should Read this Book
I was expecting not to like this book! The title unfortunately lends itself to pre-conception and prejudice. Read more
Published 21 months ago by RJ Lane

2.0 out of 5 stars I was your friend....
A note to lyndsey hanley. If you remember, which you obviously dont, I was actually your friend in Chelmsley Wood when we were at junior school. Read more
Published on 3 Oct 2007 by Natalie Mills

3.0 out of 5 stars Interesting, but misleading on Goldfinger
This book is interesting and lively. The section on Ernö Goldfinger's tower blocks and in particular why the architect chose to live for 2 months in Balfron Tower is very... Read more
Published on 13 Feb 2007 by Nigel Warburton

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