Skateboarders with an eye out for a good read might want to check out a new book, 'Skateboarding, Space and the City'.

The book, by Ian Borden, covers this increasingly common feature of the urban environment (it's estimated there are 40 million skateboarders world-wide).

This book is the first detailed study of the urban phenomenon of skateboarding. It looks at skateboarding history from the surf-beaches of California in the 1950s, through the purpose-built skateparks of the 1970s, to the street-skating of the present day and shows how skateboarders experience and understand the city through their sport.

According to Amazon: 'Dismissive of authority and convention, skateboarders suggest that the city is not just a place for working and but a true pleasure-ground, a place where the human body, emotions and energy can be expressed to the full. Their movement changes our vision of body, space and place.'

As the Independent book critic put it: 'Borden suggests that skateboarders help us to think about buildings and their use. A handrail, a park bench, a sweeping curve of concrete: all can become the architectural heart of an area for these fou-wheeled temporary graffitists.'

Find out more about this book at Amazon

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