As hoped, my copy of Boom Cities was waiting for me, Otto’s detailed and scholarly exploration of the politics of 1960s town planning (its subtitle is Architect-Planners and the Politics of Radical Urban Renewal in 1960s Britain). It’s a historical account as much as a purely architectural one, looking at how the radical changes to cities in the 1960s came about and who was responsible for them – the politicians, town planners and civil servants, at least as much as the architects themselves.

Of course, I strongly recommend it, apart from OUP’s outrageous price:-