Ignore Ealing at your peril says former Deputy Mayoress

If you ever wanted to find out more about life in suburbs like Ealing - we have an expert in our midst.

Former Deputy Mayoress of Ealing (2010), Rupa Huq, has published her second book on the subject in less than a year.

Dr Huq from South Ealing lectures at Kingston University and has written ‘Making Sense of Suburbia through Popular Culture’ looking at how the suburbs are reflected in TV, films, books and music.

She says : '' There is no common agreement or definition of what a suburb is so it's been left to popular culture to shape surburbia in the popular imagination.''

Dr Huq argues the idea of surburbia has often been relegated or dismissed as irrelevant but says much is going on in such places and points as an example to the riots in 2011 in Ealing and Croydon:

'' It was actually in the hollowed out high street that used to be make the suburbs such a draw that this sort of looting and ransacking happened.''

She believes politicians need to play close attention to the suburbs - because that's ''where the next election will be won or lost.''

Her first book  ‘On the Edge: The Contested Cultures of English Suburbia,’ was unveiled at a House of Commons reception in February.

Dr Huq went to Montpelier Primary and Notting Hill Girls School, and will talk about Ealing and its place in Suburban history at Ealing library next year.

27th June 2013