Cheek by Jowl
  • Published: 5 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781409027737
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
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Cheek by Jowl

A History of Neighbours

Formats & editions
EBook
5 Apr 2012
Paperback
15 Apr 2013
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A charming, funny, intelligent study of the history of neighbours from a talented young historian.

Almost everyone has a neighbour. Neighbours can enrich or ruin our lives. They fascinate and worry us in equal measure. Soap operas watched by millions play with every lurid permutation of relationships in fictional neighbourhoods. Disputes over gigantic Leylandii and noise nuisance turn nasty and fill newspaper columns. These stories have a rich history - as long as we have lived in shelters, we have had neighbours.

Emily Cockayne traces the story of the British neighbour through nine centuries - spanning Medieval, Tudor and Victorian periods, two world wars and up to today's modern, virtual world. Cheek by Jowl is social history at its most colourful and compelling and puts the people back in the houses and the houses back on the streets.

  • Published: 5 April 2012
  • ISBN: 9781409027737
  • Imprint: Vintage Digital
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 288
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Emily Cockayne

Emily Cockayne graduated with a first class degree in History from Girton College, Cambridge in 1994 and moved to Jesus College, Cambridge for postgraduate studies. Emily was awarded a doctorate for her thesis 'A cultural history of sound in England 1560-1760' in 2000, a year after being elected to a Prize Fellowship in Modern History at Magdalen College, Oxford. In January 2003 she became an Associate Lecturer for the Open University. She lives in Norwich with her husband and two children.

Praise for Cheek by Jowl

A brisk but impressively comprehensive survey.

Reader's Digest

A fine book packed with generosity, rivalry, misbehaviour, snobbery, love, murder and politics.

Alistair Mabbott, The Herald

A great insight into how our homes and communities have grown and changed.

Kate Whiting, PA syndicated review - Manchester Evening News

A great read

Penelope Lively, Spectator

A lively study of neighbourly relations.

Philippa Stockley, Sunday Telegraph

A very detailed historical survey of the upside and the downside of neighbouring since about 1300.

Peter Lewis, Daily Mail

An entirely delightful history of neighbour relations since the Middle Ages

Rupert Uloth, Country Life

I enjoyed Cockayne's book immediately

Rebecca Armstrong, Independent

Informative but fun, with an important message about society, Cockayne’s history is a human one, with all the heartache and joy that entails

Lesley McDowell, Independent on Sunday

Intelligent, instructive and brightly funny

Iain Finlayson, The Times

Original, humorously historical and wittily anecdotal.

Saga Magazine

Relishable

Independent

The avowed aim of this fascinating history of neighbours is to explore the delicate balance between people’s determination to protect their privacy and their simultaneous wish to cultivate contact with those who live close by

Good Book Guide

This curtain-twitching account is bottom-up history at its breezy best

Michael Kerrigan, Scotsman

This intriguing social history charts the concept of neighbours through British history in thorough detail

Big Issue in the North

This lively social history documents nine centuries of disputes, noise levels, wartime camaraderie and carparking issues. Fascinating

The Lady

Vivid and absorbing...like all good history, it leaves the reader wanting to know more

Peter Wilby, New Statesman