ANOTHER PHOENIX BOOK CLUB WITH NEW GUEST AUTHOR LISA HORNER

Always a great pleasure to visit Phoenix 98fm radio studio in Brentwood, Essex. This morning our favourite presenter Michelle Ward welcomed author Lisa Horner first time to Book Club. Lisa's new book published by Amberley gives readers fascinating glimpses of Basildon as it was in 1949, when it was once regarded as one of the country's 'new towns'.  Celebrations have been going on during Basildon's 70th anniversary and Lisa's newly published book Lost Basildon with many spectacular unseen images, is a great read which will undoubtedly bring back poignant memories to those Essex folk who watched it grow from a small, mainly agricultural area, to its present huge diverse town. 

Originally a collection of villages in Essex, Basildon was developed as a new town after the Second World War in 1949. The last seventy years have seen incredible changes take place. New residents started to move in during the 1950s as the first homes were completed and, alongside the new housing, the town attracted businesses to its industrial parks, many of them household names such as Ford, Gordon’s gin and GEC Marconi, as well as leading the way in new retailing with the largest covered shopping centre in Europe when it was built in the 1980s. Further regeneration of the town is planned, and the town retains traces of its historical past, as well as green, open spaces.

Lost Basildon presents a portrait of this town in Essex, showing not just the buildings, streets and industries that have gone or changed, but also a way of life that is no longer. This fascinating photographic history of lost Basildon will appeal to all those who live in the town or know it well, as well as those who remember it from previous decades.