To Battersea Park: The new novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted author of The Northern Clemency – ‘Brilliantly conceived’ William Boyd

Product Information

Change the plan you will roll onto at any time during your trial by visiting the “Settings & Account” section. What happens at the end of my trial? For cost savings, you can change your plan at any time online in the “Settings & Account” section. If you’d like to retain your premium access and save 20%, you can opt to pay annually at the end of the trial. This is more than just stylistic showmanship, though. To Battersea Park is a different kind of state-of-the-nation novel; an exercise in imagination and empathy born out of a moment of collective crisis during which we all needed those things more than ever before. Like one of the closely observed roses in the narrator’s garden, from its confined beginnings To Battersea Park buds and unfurls promisingly. Noticing things leads to noticing people. And, from noticing people, it’s a short step to speculating about their unseen lives. What led to the explosive family row outside his window? What drives the depressed jogger’s son – a fellow noticer – to wander the street with a copy of The Observer’s Book of Trees?

Next, in a section entitled The Hero Takes a Journey Away from His Environment, we are whisked to a near-future dystopia. Quentin, gym-buff and self-confident, finds himself on a new-build estate in Whitstable. The country has broken down under the weight of wave after wave of Covid. Violent, feral youths roam the land – the “life-to-come boys”. Quentin receives a letter from his father, a dentist in Ramsgate, some 20 miles away, and decides to walk and visit him. He’s joined by a young man called Simon, the child of a neighbour, who speaks like Mr Darcy after “repeated viewings of period television dramas”. It’s like The Road meets All the Devils Are Here: the journey is electrifying, Hensher’s vision of the Kentish coast brilliant and brutal. You may also opt to downgrade to Standard Digital, a robust journalistic offering that fulfils many user’s needs. Compare Standard and Premium Digital here. No matter what time of year this park is a beautiful place to visit and there will always be something to do. Battersea Park holds a rich history, and plays a significant role in the local community. It opened in 1858, and has witnessed the transformation of the surrounding area over the years.

My IFS Cloud Cable Car

Vauxhall (Zones 1 and 2, Victoria line). A 20 minute walk via Nine Elms Lane or a five minute bus ride on routes 156, 344 and 436, with entry to Battersea Power Station via Pump House Lane. The creation of Battersea Park was first mooted in 1843 when the property developer Thomas Cubitt, and the local vicar, the Honourable Reverend Robert Eden, reported to Queen Victoria's Commission for Improving the Metropolis. In 1846 an Act of Parliament was passed which authorised the formation of a park on a part of Battersea Common and Battersea Fields which included the pleasure grounds of the Red House inn. It also reads more like memoir than fiction. The narrator bears a striking resemblance to Hensher himself. Struggling to write, he reads Ivy Compton-Burnett novels instead – “starting a new one as soon as I had finished the last, like lighting each cigarette from the butt of the one before” (such a brilliant image) – bakes elaborate cakes, seethes with an irrational hatred of the joggers who clog the footpaths of local parks (remember those days?), and watches the comings and goings of his neighbours on the street. Each household is its own little crucible of drama, both real and imaginary. With so much shopping and fantastic food and drink options in Battersea plus good transport links in central London, Battersea is a great place to stay whilst in London.

When it first opened, bustling factories dominated the daily lives of Londoners. Battersea Park was a tranquil haven where people could escape the chaos of urban living, and immerse themselves in a world of natural beauty and leisure. Battersea Power Station now has its own Zone 1 Underground station on the Northern Line. The station entrance/exit is situated on Battersea Park Road.

Throughout the decades that followed, the park adapted to the changing needs and desires of Battersea’s residents. What was once a refuge for Victorian-era strollers, seeking refuge from the city’s hustle and bustle, gradually transformed into a dynamic community space. The book’s second part then marks a shift in perspective, as the focus splinters to encompass a wider cast of characters. These include a builder and his wife and children, the narrator’s elderly parents, and a journalist who travels to interview a famous writer too old to master Zoom. Sloane Square (Zone 1, Circle and District lines). A 12 minute walk via Ranelagh Gardens and Chelsea Bridge or a five minute bus ride on routes 452 and 137.