Why are we so fascinated by ruins? Do we see them as jig-saws and riddles or romantic evocations of the damage of Time, complete with crumbling stone and ivy? The author looks back to the start of the cult in the 18th century, when follies were built in English landscape gardens, artists and writers thrilled to Rome's poetry of decay, and in Paris, the great chef Careme even served blancmange in the shape of classical ruins. His narrative takes the reader from Troy and Pompei to Nazi fantasies, the shattered Statue of Liberty in the film "Planet of the Apes" and even to the Chelsea Flower Show's "Millenium Ruin".