''It was amazing how quiet London could be. Not only in the big parks, but in great walled enclosures like the Temple or in the old churches like St Bartholomew's, there was a silence that seemed to take one back for centuries. Even here in the City the office buildings rising high over the narrow streets provided a screen so that the sounds of London's busy traffic could scarcely be heard. She glanced up at the sky. Still blue.'' ( )

I’ve owned this book, the First American Edition, since 1997. It took me over 2-1/2 decades to finally get to it.

I was disappointed in this book. I’d expected to give it 5 or at least 4 stars.

2-1/2 stars rounded up because I suspect my mood influenced by enjoyment of it and because I enjoyed enough about it that it was a bit more than just okay for me. I kind of liked it.

I thought it would be a page-turner but for me it was not. I struggled to pick it up and didn’t have that hard a time putting it down. I was eager to be done with it. I’m glad that I stuck with it but I barely liked it, true of both when I was reading and now that I’ve finished. I’ll probably keep the book though.

It was sheer stubbornness that made me want to finish. That and thinking that I’d enjoy the last few chapters the most and I sort of did.

The chapters are: 1. The River; 2. Londinium; 3. The Rood; 4. The Conqueror; 5. The Tower; 6. The Saint; 7. The Mayor; 8. The Whorehouse; 9. London Bridge; 10. Hampton Court; 11. The Globe; 12. God’s Fire; 13. London’s Fire; 14. St. Paul’s; 15. Gin Lane; 16. Lavender Hill; 17. The Crystal Palace; 18. The Cutty Sark; 19. The Suffragette; 20. The Blitz; 21. The River.

The maps are: a general map shows southeast England and some of mainland Europe and the English Channel and the North Sea; Roman and Saxon London; Medieval and Tudor London; Georgian and Victorian London; and one of London’s Village and Suburbs.

The characters/family trees have a timeline double page showing those who appear in each chapter.

This story should have been my cup of tea given that London is my number one bucket list destination and I’ve always been interested in the city & area. Also, I’m fascinated with genealogy/family trees and now each generation affects the next one(s) and this multigenerational story does a good job of showing this.

What I liked:

I loved how it started with the area prior to human habitation.

I loved how it ended with an archeological dig and its particular participants.

I appreciated the maps.

I did care about a few of the many characters and I delighted in seeing how each generation impacted on the next generations.

I loved the history.

I liked seeing how life was for average people in various time periods. I think that a good job was done with this.

What was neither here nor there:

The characters/families timeline was definitely helpful but if used properly (and I did that) it contained a lot of spoilers such as who got married to which people and who their children, grandchildren, etc. were, and also when their line ended in some cases.

The author seemed to do thorough research and I learned a lot but I’d have much rather read a nonfiction book covering the same content.

I tried an audio version to read simultaneously with the hardcover but listened to only maybe a quarter of it. It didn’t help me concentrate or focus or get more enjoyment from the book.

I did look up some of the real history and the real people as I was reading the novel. I was motivated to want to do that.

What I didn’t like:

The premise was interesting but only a very few characters were memorable for me. So little time is spent with most of them and for me they were sometimes hard to remember and at times I was confused and I felt as though I didn’t get to know most well enough to feel fully invested in their lives. Most were forgettable once I left their chapters.

I thought the fictional characters would bring history to life. They often do and I’m sure they were meant to here but while that was sometimes the case I don’t think it worked well enough of the time.

There was too much reliance connecting the characters down the generations on genetic physical descriptions.

I think many of the characters could have been better drawn. I hate when real people/events such as Beckett and Chaucer and King Henry VIII and the Mayflower and King Charles I and II and Pepys and James the Duke of York and Sir Christopher Wren and others are too involved with fictional characters. I realize this is done to flesh out a narrative and I know this is done to some extent in nonfiction too but I really didn’t like it in this story.

It was a slog to read it. I love long books when I am engrossed in them but that didn’t really happen for me with this book. It was easy to put down and I wasn’t yearning to pick it up.

It is a heavy book and hard to read with it sitting on my chest. This is an instance when an e-book might have been better than a paper book.

What might have been different:

I think if I’d read this book with my book club or with a friend or friends I’d have liked it more than I did. Discussing it with other readers chapter by chapter would have made reading it more fun and more absorbing.

I’ve been struggling to read and to find the right book for my mood so if I’d been in a different frame of mind I might have loved or at least liked this book more than I did.

All this said about how underwhelmed I was with this book I do want to read the author’s book about New. York. I’ve always been interested in the Indigenous people of the area and its early immigrants and I spent a couple of formative times there and I think I would enjoy reading about its history. I do wonder if I had spent time in London and knew it well whether I might have enjoyed this book more than I did. ( )

Great idea, long read. Interesting if you know and like London. ( )

Excellent ( )

Wow, this is just an absolutely fascinating novel---one of the best I've ever read, for sure. There are so many wonderful things to say about it that I know I'll miss most of them in this review, but I just have to say how happy I am that I took the time to read this incredible story! One of the things I loved the most about it is that there were not a lot of emotional highs and lows. Most situations turn out positively---often times comically so---and the story just moves along steadily with endearing characters, both strong and weak. The real genius, I think, is how well the feel of the story mirrors the truth of London, itself; along with its inhabitants, its places, the Thames---steady, strong, endearing.

I've studied the history of London, and England as a whole, quite a bit, and I think that made this saga easier to follow, as I was placing family lines within familiar places. As I said, there are so many fantastic bits, but here are a few things I took note of:

It was interesting to read about the origin of the naming of "pounds sterling" (see page 280)

It was fun to imagine how surnames were given and changed over time---especially as it seems my own was upon entering the US in the early 1900s.

It was fascinating to read about the origin of terms and ideas like impeachment or grocers or Greenwich time.

I had to laugh and then look up videos of the practice of slamming the door in the face of Black Rod upon opening Parliament. Ha!

Of course it was fantastic to read about one of my favorite historical figures, Samuel Pepys!

Pg. 837 was a little surprising, informing me that at this point in history (1701), it was decided that a Catholic could not sit on the throne, nor could a monarch be married to a Catholic. This taking place in the late 17th century wasn't the shock---it was that, upon research, I learned that it is still unlawful for a Catholic to hold the monarchy! (Though Catholic spouses have been allowed since 2011). I understand the reason why, since they are head of the Anglican church, yet I still find it interesting that they wouldn't find a work around in this anti-God age of liberality.

The story only really lagged a little for me in the time period from Charles I to George II, but that time of history has never interested me so I doubt it's the fault of the author.

I almost just want to start this lovely story all over again now---but I'll wait a year or two. Highly recommended! ( )