Product Description

Beginning as a scattering of cottages along a pre-Roman pack-horse track going northwards, developing by degrees into a medieval parish and staging-post for travellers, then into a prosperous Tudor village favoured by gentlemen for their country seats, into an eighteenth-century resort of pleasure gardens, into a select residential suburb, and finally into a thickly-populated working-class district, Kentish Town has passed through every possible visual and social permutation, and is still developing and changing today. Far more than just a meticulously researched local history, The Fields Beneath illustrates the classic historical sequence of the village gradually being absorbed by the metropolis.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #418812 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09-19
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

About the Author
Gillian Tindall has lived in Kentish Town for over thirty-five years. The Fields Beneath was first published in 1977 and remained in print throughout the 1980s. In the intervening time the author, who has also made a name as a novelist and biographer, has produced further historical studies based on place, extending her range to include both rural France and Bombay. Her Celestine, Voices from a French Village has won awards in England and in France. She is engaged in further work in London, and has recently completed a study of Wenceslaus Hollar.

Customer Reviews

History in the Detail
In 'The Fields Beneath', Gillian Tindall exposes the layers of history under Kentish Town in a fluid, poetic, often wry style (she does not say exactly what 'monthly nurses' did for a living, for example, but we are left in little doubt). The work is pervaded by her understanding and appreciation of organic change and - especially in the final chapter - a heartfelt distaste for town planners' grand schemes. I knew little of this area before but as a Londoner I could imagine the same waves of change washing over my area (even if they arrived somewhat later).

If I have a complaint, I sometimes wanted the geography to be clearer. Like any London district, Kentish Town is a complex place and it was not always easy to relate the places described to each other. I found myself wanting more maps and wanting them located within the text.

Anyone who has lived in London should find this book interesting. I'm not sure whether it will open the eyes of those who 'hardly know London,' as the blurb says - it probably depends on your interest in the evolution of cities. If that does appeal, you should not be disappointed.

Great but not updated
I'd thoroughly endorse the review below - this is local history at its best. If you live in or near Kentish Town, it's essential. If you live anwhere in London or just love the place, it's important. And if you're interested in any kind of urban history, it's a great read.

But this is NOT a new version, just a reissue of the original 1977 edition.

One You'll Definitely Want To Own
Long out of print, the original edition of this book was, and remains for me, far and away the best local history I've ever come across. I can't wait to read this new version.
Ms Tindall provides far more than a simple recital of the story. While there's detail-a-plenty, she has taken trouble to weave the facts into a coherent narrative, with cause and effect carefully explained and commented on with deep insight (and no little sense of humour). Running throughout is a fascinating sub-text that examines people's perceptions of the area at various times, and the way those very perceptions sometimes influenced its development.
Believe me, once you've read this, you'll want to own it. And you'll never look at your own suburb or town in quite the same way again.