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Frontierlands

byHazel Sheffield

Britain’s Survival in the Making

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The inspiring new book about Britain’s abandoned and neglected places, the opportunities they present for business and communities, and how they can help us face the challenges of climate change.

'This is not just a grassroots manual for 21st century survival – groundswelling and prophetic, it could be a startling blueprint for life in the 22nd.' - Tom Nancollas, author of Seashaken Houses

'Remarkable, exquisitely researched and acutely observed, it won’t leave me.' - Lucy Easthope, author of When the Dust Settles

'This is a book for now, when so many feel jaded, worn thin and in desperate need of hope.' - Kassia St Clair, author of The Secret Lives of Colour

'Read one page, and you will want to keep reading.' - Paul Hawken, author of Regeneration

'Frontierlands' are Britain's forgotten places. Silt-filled harbours, overgrown forests, sunken railway tracks and empty buildings. All once economic engines, now abandoned by investors and the state.

But they are home to local communities, and amongst them, some remarkable pioneers working together to repair, rebuild and prepare for the future.

Hazel Sheffield takes her readers on a journey that begins at the coastline and travels inward via hoardings and railway arches, factories, streets and neighbourhoods to our homes. Moving from Watchet harbour in the South West to Gateshead in the North East, from Lancashire to London and the South East, she introduces us to the people who are acting to shape their own destinies - people with first-hand knowledge of the problems Britain faces and with clear ideas how to make things better.

This is a book about regeneration, reclaiming power, and the hope that comes from community action. About people questioning how the world works and determined to do things differently in the face of economic upheaval and climate crisis. People learning to build a new world, challenging us all to think about how we should live in the face of certain change.

Immersive and inspiring, Frontierlands challenges us to reconnect with and reclaim our environment, showing that it is possible to regenerate, reskill and create opportunities for industry, and to address the challenges of climate change.

A compelling account of how derelict neighbourhoods and abandoned buildings have become a new frontier for community development, seedbeds of renewal, creativity, and social justice ... Read one page, and you will want to keep reading. In the end, you may want to grab a work belt or spade and create a “lifescape”, a renewed commons that is the basis of a flourishing social life.

Paul Hawken, author of Regeneration

About Hazel Sheffield

Hazel Sheffield is a business reporter and investigative journalist. Her work can be found in national and international publications including the Guardian, Follow the Money and the Financial Times. Before going freelance, she covered derivatives for Euromoney and worked as the business editor of the Independent. She left the Independent in the summer of 2016 to start a grant-funded project called farnearer.org, documenting self-organising communities and economic alternatives in the UK. After a decade of reporting, that work has come together as Frontierlands, her first book. She lives with her family in Hastings.
Details
  • Imprint: Torva
  • ISBN: 9781911709312
  • Length: 384 pages
  • Dimensions: 222mm x 34mm x 143mm
  • Weight: 483g
  • Price: £20.00
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