At my travel writing seminars I often tell the students that they do not have to go to the ends of the Earth to make a discovery. Real treasures are often within easy reach, so instead of staring up at the sky in search of them, look down at the grass (or at the snow) under your feet. But look properly!
Some of you, my dear readers, might take the above passage as a lame excuse for a tired traveller’s habitual start-of-the-year laziness, when it is so tempting to stay in a warm and cosy house rather than venture to some dark and frozen far-away fields. And you may be right! Continuing my quest for Britain’s technological, literary, and other Utopias, I want to introduce you to the one which originated – literally – on our doorstep, just a couple of miles away from the IET’s (and E&T’s) state-of-the art Stevenage headquarters, now known as Futures Place.
I am talking about one of my favourite books, ‘The Coming Race’, first published in 1870 and regarded...