Outskirts

Coined by National Trust co-founder Octavia Hill, the phrase 'Green Belt' originally formed part of an impassioned plea to protect the countryside. Green Belts became part of the landscape and psyche of post-war Britain, but would lead to conflicts at every level of society. John Grindrod had a childhood that mirrored these tensions. His family, too, seemed caught between two worlds: a wheelchair-bound mother who glowed in the dark; a father who was traumatised by chicken and was eventually done in by an episode of Only Fools and Horses; two brothers - one sporty, one agoraphobic - and an unremarkable boy on the edge of it all discovering something magical.