Semi Detached London

Originally published in 1973, Semi-Detached London looks at the great suburban expansion of London between the two world wars. The book covers all aspects of urban history, presenting an authoritative and balanced account of the Great Suburban Age, and the final uninhibited forty years before the Green Belt and Development Plan. The roles of the speculative builder, the estate developer and the local authorities receive careful attention and the author’s special knowledge of London’s transport systems ensures that the leading part they played is fully developed. Students of social, urban and transport history will find this book a valuable source of reference.

Originally published in 1973, Semi-Detached London looks at the great suburban expansion of London between the two world wars. The book covers all aspects of urban history, presenting an authoritative and balanced account of the Great Suburban Age, and the final uninhibited forty years before the Green Belt and Development Plan. The roles of the speculative builder, the estate developer and the local authorities receive careful attention and the author’s special knowledge of London’s transport systems ensures that the leading part they played is fully developed. Students of social, urban and transport history will find this book a valuable source of reference.

Originally published in 1973, Semi-Detached London looks at the great suburban expansion of London between the two world wars. The book covers all aspects of urban history, presenting an authoritative and balanced account of the Great Suburban Age, and the final uninhibited forty years before the Green Belt and Development Plan. The roles of the speculative builder, the estate developer and the local authorities receive careful attention and the author's special knowledge of London's transport systems ensures that the leading part they played is fully developed. Students of social, urban and transport history will find this book a valuable source of reference.

In the first book to consider British suburban literature from the vantage point of imperial and postcolonial studies, Todd Kuchta argues that suburban identity is tied to the empire's rise and fall. Like the semi-detached house, which joins separate dwellings under one roof, suburbia and empire were geographically distinct but imaginatively linked. Yet just as the "semi" conceals two homes behind a single façade, suburbia's apparent uniformity masks its defining oppositions--between country and city, "civilization" and "savagery," master and slave.

This text tells the story of the most successful house-type in British history, of which more than four million were built between the first and second world wars. Jensen tracks the phenomenal rise and subsequent fall of the speculatively-built semi, from the Georgian, Victorian and Edwardian to the 1920s, 30s and beyond.

Immensely respected on both sides of the House, John Biffen was a man of charm, wisdom and intelligence. Celebrated as one of the cleverest and nicest politicians around, he brought to the Conservative benches one of the most original economic minds of his generation. Biffen served as Chief Secretary to the Treasury and Secretary of State for Trade, but it was as Leader of the House of Commons that he really made his mark. Over time, he found himself increasingly at odds with the divisive nature and style of Margaret Thatcher's government. Thatcher was unreceptive and he was slowly frozen out. In sacking Biffen from her Cabinet, she lost one of the more human faces of her government. With its candid account of the subject's battle with depression, this fascinating autobiography, with extensive extracts from his unpublished diaries, is a portrait of great humanity and determination set against the backdrop of public life. Semi-Detached revisits dramatic and poignant moments from Biffen's personal life and from the corridors of power, presenting a moving and penetrating portrayal of one of the twentieth century's most remarkable politicians.