Walking in Ruins

Ruins have exerted a powerful hold over the human imagination since the Romantics, exciting thoughts of what once was and what might have been. With characteristic humour, insight and erudition, Geoff Nicholson takes us on a tour of ruins ancient and modern, picturesque and mundane, from Stonehenge and Alcatraz to a derelict zoo on the edge of Hollywood and an abandoned council estate in Sheffield.