Ed Glinert

A wonderful paean to London throughout the ages as the author gives us the history of London streets, from the time of Boudica to the 2012 Olympics.

It was fascinating to find out for example, that Spike Milligan designed the colour scheme for Woodside Park tube station, that police once arrested a pantomime horse near Portobello Road and Karl Marx got caught drunk and disorderly. Practically every page has an eye opening fact such as these and I couldn't wait to see who was name checked show more next. My only regret was that I didn't have this book with me on my various trips to London over the years. show less

The author figuratively walks through London and identifies the literary significance of different areas and addresses. This book is very thick with references to George Orwell and those coming before him, a little light on those after (although a fair amount of Iain Sinclair and Peter Ackroyd), but the author acknowledges this and reasonably excuses it with appeals to space limitations. I have to admit I didn't read every word of this book, but I did read all the parts that were interesting show more or relevant to me. And there were some really interesting and gruesome vignettes!

What I really liked about this book is that he covers all of Greater London--not just the touristy bits around Buckingham Palace, the Tower of London, and Hyde Park. He has organized it geographically by the capital's postal districts. There is also an author index.

Recommended for: this is a must-have reference for any lover of literature who is going to spend some time in London. show less

Interesting start as a history of the oddballs, heretics and magicians of Great Britain, but ends up all too samey and repetitive.

Good, passionate overview of the East End, with some righteous anger about redevelopment thrown in....