Saved - How and English village fought for its future... and won!

SAVED is the inside story of one of the biggest environmental campaign victories in recent years. It’s the entertaining and occasionally shocking David and Goliath story of how a small village defeated a £1 billion plan to concrete over some of the most protected countryside in England.

[ClickPress, Mon Apr 02 2007] It was meant to be a done deal. In the winter of 2005, people living in the historic Kent village of Wye discovered it was about to disappear under a sea of new housing and commercial development in a deal brokered in secret by its own councils and a huge London university.

Ten months later the £1 billion scheme was dead, killed by some astonishing revelations on a £10 website run by two local residents in their spare time. SAVED is a highly personal warts-and-all history told by best-selling author David Hewson, who founded the web-site www.save-wye.org

This is a biting, controversial and entertaining account of the campaign and the individuals who brought this massive scheme crashing to earth. With a foreword by the leading media commentator Roy Greenslade, SAVED is a glimpse into the inner workings of 21st century Britain, and a revelatory account of how the power and instant communication facilities of the internet can change the face of modern democracy.

“I am delighted to state, unequivocally, that this book exemplifies the ‘good stuff’ of journalism. It offers conclusive proof that journalism can make a difference, a positive difference, to people’s lives.”
– From the foreword, by leading media commentator Roy Greenslade

“This is a fascinating book, full of insights into the workings of local politics, new, web-based ways of campaigning, different environmental tactics, and institutions as powerful as they are unaccountable. As a result of a wonderfully effective campaign, this little corner of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in Kent is safe for now.”
– Jonathon Porritt, Forum for the Future


About the Author: David Hewson was born in Yorkshire in 1953. He was a journalist from the age of 17 and has worked on The Times, The Independent and most recently the Sunday Times. He is now the author of a bestselling series of Italian detective novels set in Rome and Venice featuring much loved detectives Costa and Peroni. These novels are published around the world and translated into many languages including Chinese, Japanese, Italian and Russian. David Hewson's first novel, Semana Santa was made into a film starring Mira Sorvino. David now lives with his family in Kent.

PUBLICATION DATE 7th April 2007
ISBN: 978-1905886-76-0
Price: £8.99
Contact David Hewson on 07944 567104 or Julia Fuller at Troubador Publishing Ltd.

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