Download or read book A Walk in the Park written by Travis Elborough and published by Random House. This book was released on 2016-06-02 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'A fascinating, informative, revelatory book' William Boyd, Guardian Parks are such a familiar part of everyday life, you might be forgiven for thinking they have always been there. In fact, public parks are an invention. From their medieval inception as private hunting grounds through to their modern incarnation as public spaces of rest and relaxation, parks have been fought over by land-grabbing monarchs, reforming Victorian industrialists, hippies, punks, and somewhere along the way, the common folk trying to savour their single day of rest. In A Walk in the Park, Travis Elborough excavates the history of parks in all their colour and complexity. Loving, funny and impassioned, this is a timely celebration of a small wonder that – in an age of swingeing cuts – we should not take for granted.