Sir Nicholas Kenyon with Geoffrey Clifton: 22nd October 2011 NOW WITH ALAN POWERS!

PLEASE NOTE: Unfortunately Sir Nicholas Kenyon has unexpectedly had to cancel his appearance at the Essar Oil Chester Literature Festival and sends his apologies. We apologise for this unavoidable inconvenience, but we are pleased to announce that having spoken about the book jointly with Sir Nicolas at other events, Alan Powers will be coming to take Sir Nicholas' place and will be in conversation with Geoffrey Clifton as planned on the 22nd Oct.

From its beginnings 2000 years ago as a Roman settlement, the City of London has evolved into one of the world’s great financial centres. Concentrated into its square mile is a rich mixture of buildings and public spaces that reflects the area’s extraordinary history. The book guides the newcomer and those familiar with the City through the amazing variety of buildings that range from the Norman Tower of London to Jean Nouvel’s One New Change. Structures such as the Bank of England, the Guildhall, the glorious Wren churches, the city livery halls and the Thames’s bridges bear witness to the magic and mystery of the ancient and modern urban environment that makes this small part of our island arguably the most fascinating and influential square mile in Britain today.

Alan Powers is a British author specialising in books on architecture and is a major contributor to this book.

He is joint editor of the journal Twentieth Century Architecture, for the Twentieth Century Society and is a Professor in Architecture and Cultural History at the University of Greenwich in east London. An expert on 20th century architecture, Alan was awarded an Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) in 2008.

Geoffrey Clifton is a consulting structural engineer who specialises in historic buildings and is involved nationally with the Cathedral Fabric Commission for England and the English Heritage Advisory Committee. Locally he is the chairman of Chester Performs and is heavily involved in developing the new theatre for Chester.