Alec Forshaw – författare

It is said that, however long you live, and however far you travel, the streets and fields where you played as a child will always be home to you. So Cambridge is for Alec Forshaw. This is a story of a childhood in Cambridge in the 1950s and '60s, followed by three undergraduate years and three decades of frequent and regular visits until the ties of the parental home were broken. These are memories set down before they too disappear and they recall a Cambridge which for many will have faded. Those who have read Gwen Raverat's Period Piece: A Cambridge Childhood will have seen in her description of the town and its society a different world. The reminiscences herein may rekindle more recent recollections, or simply entertain and amuse.

The 1980s was a decade of immense change in London as well as across the rest of the country, setting in motion social and economic forces that shaped much that we recognise today in the capital, which experienced considerable upheaval in the process.In this book author Alec Forshaw presents a portrait of 1980s London using a selection of previously unpublished photographs by Theo Bergström. This was the era of the Big Bang and deregulation of the financial institutions in the City, the abandonment of Fleet Street by the newspaper industry, the demise of the GLC, the beginning of regeneration in Docklands, and the last days of old Billingsgate Market. While some areas witnessed gentrification, spiralling property prices and a myriad of new places to eat out, other places like Brixton and Tottenham were recovering from riots. Bergström’s evocative images and Forshaw’s perceptive text capture a changing and uncertain world on the streets of London.

Alec Forshaw has been a frequent visitor to Cuba for over twenty years. This book provides a beguiling and broad-ranging picture of this fascinating country. Covering diverse subjects from farming to pharmaceuticals, health provision to hurricanes, baseball to beekeeping, ballet to bicycles, salsa to cigars, indigenous heritage to industrial development, rum to revolution, architecture to anthropology, and wildlife to women’s rights, this book provides a stimulating and informative alternative to standard travel guides, political polemics or academic studies. It will encourage those who already know Cuba to explore it further and persuade those who have never visited to see this amazing place for themselves.

The last 25 years or so have witnessed redevelopment in the City of London on an unprecedented scale, following the deregulation of the financial markets, the so-called 'Big Bang', in the mid-1980s. As the City has earned its place as a true global financial centre, the majority of its office space has been rebuilt, and developers have taken a more adventurous approach, commissioning such leading British and international architects as Norman Foster, Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel and Richard Rogers. New City is the first book to examine in depth the creation of one of the world's largest collections of cutting-edge architecture - not just the prestigious office blocks that have changed the skyline, but also cultural institutions, retail sites and public spaces. Following an introduction that explores the context for the rebuilding of the City, the main part of the book is divided into 12 concise walk-throughs of the major areas. Authoritatively written by a former urban planner and with all-new photography throughout, this is an indispensable architectural guide for professionals and the public alike.

Following a sheltered childhood and a sequestered education in Cambridge, and having missed out on the swinging sixties, Alec Forshaw was ready for a dose of the wider world. London in the early 1970s was where the lights shone brightest. In reality, it was still a city struggling to find its post-war identity, full of declining industries and derelict docklands, a townscape blighted by undeveloped bomb sites, demonic motorway proposals and slum clearance schemes. The streets were full of costermongers and greasy-spoon cafes, but enlivened by ghettos of immigrants and student culture. Ideas of traffic constraint and recycling rubbish were in their infancy. It was a decade which saw the three-day week, the Notting Hill riots and the last of the anti-Vietnam war protests. This sequel to Growing Up in Cambridge portrays the London of over thirty years ago as it appeared to a young man in his twenties, finding his feet, coming of age, and stumbling across the sights and sounds of an extraordinary city.