London: A Literary Anthology

"There's nowhere like London really you know," says Ginger in Evelyn Waugh's Vile Bodies. From the innumerable books written about London or set in the city, it would seem countless other writers agree. This anthology features a wide-ranging collection of poems and scenes from novels that stretch from the 15th century to the present day. They range from Daniel Defoe hymning "the greatest, the finest, the richest city in the world" to Rudyard Kipling declaring impatiently, "I am sick of London town;" from William Makepeace Thackeray moving among "the very greatest circles of the London fashion" to Charles Dickens venturing into an "infernal gulf." Experience London for the first time with Lord Byron's Don Juan, and James Berry in his Caribbean gear "beginning in the city." Plunge into the multi-racial whirlpool described in William Wordsworth's Prelude, Hanif Kureishi's The Black Album, and Zadie Smith's White Teeth. See the ever-changing city through the eyes of Tobias Smollett, John Galsworthy, and Angela Carter. From well-known texts to others that are less familiar, here is London brought to life through the words of many of the greatest writers in the English language.

"Interesting narratives, wonderful illustrations and attractive design." —Visiting London

Richard Fairman is an author.