Walking in Ruins

by Geoff Nicholson

Walking in Ruins is Geoff Nicholson's response to those who ask him to name a favourite walk. He walks by ruins ancient and modern, picturesque and mundane and he reports on what he sees with his eye for the unusual, and his habitual erudition and humour.

Ruins are his muse. So he spends the book doing exactly what its title suggests. Locations include an abandoned Los Angeles zoo, now inhabited by two homeless men, a Sheffield housing estate whose road layout survives even though its houses don't, and a desert town that's been, er, deserted. Nicholson keeps finding shoes there, though never a matching pair. (The Spectator)

Genres: Nonfiction

244 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2013

About the author

Geoff Nicholson was a British novelist and nonfiction writer. He was educated at the Universities of Cambridge and Essex.

The main themes and features of his books include leading characters with obsessions, characters with quirky views on life, interweaving storylines and hidden subcultures and societies. His books usually contain a lot of black humour. He has also written three works of nonfiction and some short stories. His novel Bleeding London was shortlisted for the 1997 Whitbread Prize.

Reviews

[Rachel Stevenson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Walking in John Ruskin, Jarvis Cocker, Marion Shoard, Cabaret Voltaire, Werner Herzog, Albert Speer, John Carpenter, Guy Debord, Frank Lloyd Wright, Bess of Hardwick, Thomas Pynchon, Noah Purifoy, Samuel Beckett, Edgar Allen Poe, and H.G. Wells.

[Deborah J · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars, really, which is disappointing as I truly wanted to like this book more. Nicholson says he doesn't approve of the term "psychogeography", but whatever you want to call this type of activity, I like it. I find urban ruins or decay fascinating, and walking has to be the best way to appreciate any environment. I couldn't read Iain Sinclair (note to self: must try harder) and thought this would be a more approachable work. The bits about Sheffield and Jaywick held my attention, as did the stuff about Speer and Beckett, but for some reason the more personal aspect was fairly uninteresting (the three-legged dog etc). However, the pointer to Rose Macaulay and the works that serve as a bibliography promise hours of fruitful fun.
And the book needs proofreading - too many mistakes!