Timothy Brook

1 month ago | the-tls.co.uk | Henry Hitchings |Joe Moran |Travis Elborough |Timothy Brook

“Our romantic affair with the automobile has cooled”, writes Witold Rybczynski in this brisk, informative history of automotive design. What was once passionate – an infatuation that also seemed an enlargement of self – now feels “more like a loveless marriage”. The insight is hardly new. Indeed, it was offered at least as long ago as 1958, by John C. Keats in his book The Insolent Chariots.

1 month ago | the-tls.co.uk | Travis Elborough |Joe Moran |Henry Hitchings |Timothy Brook

“I’ve got this thing about Croydon”, David Bowie – who was raised in Bromley – told Q magazine in 1999. It was my nemesis, I hated Croydon with a real vengeance. It represented everything I didn’t want in my life, everything I wanted to get away from. I think it’s the most derogatory thing I can say about somebody or something: “God, it’s so fucking Croydon!” It was gonna be the big second city to London, but it never came to be.