Garden Cities: the phrase is redolent of Arts and Crafts values and nineteenth-century utopianism.

But despite being the culmination of a range of influential movements, and their own influence, in fact there were only ever two true garden cities in England - far more numerous were garden suburbs and villages.

Crystallised in England by social visionary Ebenezer Howard and designed in many cases by Barry Parker and Raymond Unwin, the concept arose from industrial settlements like Port Sunlight, and also from the American City Beautiful movement. Designed to promote healthy and comfortable individual and community life, as well as commerce and industry, they remain instantly recognisable.

This book is a beautifully illustrated guide to the movement and to the communities which are its legacy.