[The author] began her working life leading guided walks at a small village ... Built by philanthropic employers for families working the lead mines, the isolated settlement was one of a network of 'model' villages which sprang up across Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries ... Yallop visits, and re-visits, some of these utopian experiments to explore their rich histories and to understand the social, political, and cultural contexts from which they emerged. From Scotland's New Lanark mills to the imposing market square at Tremadog in Wales and the Arts and Crafts cottages of Port Sunlight, she walks the avenues and terraces to examine what remains of the impulses and ideals which made these villages so fashionable"--Publisher's description.