Facebook threw a joyous memory my way the other day: a jaunt I made into London with an almost 7 month old Rufus in February 2018. I took Ru to the blitzed-church-ruins-turned-into-public-garden of St Dunstan in the East, where his dad had proposed to me almost a year to the day before he was born,…
Tag: London
The End We Start From by Megan Hunter
The End We Start From is a ‘cli-fi’ novel, set in Britain as flood waters close over London, and written from the perspective of a woman who has just given birth to her first child. Most parents will concede that the first year of parenthood is the hardest year of one’s life, its balm being…
Celebrating International Women’s Day 2018!
Following our posts to celebrate International Women’s Day in 2016 and 2017, we’re back again for #IWD2018 with a bounty of books to explore woman’s place in the world. Set in Rosenau, an isolated alpine farming community in Austria, Homestead by Rosina Lippi begins with a mysterious love letter – its intended recipient potentially being…
The Naked Civil Servant by Quentin Crisp (1968)
Today, as the biggest UK LGBT+ parade, Pride in London, promotes love, diversity and tolerance, the story of one man’s determination to proudly live his life in defiance of a society that rejected him. Quentin Crisp’s constant flow of witticisms (‘I should have guessed that she was a born murderee. She used to wear a…
Panoramas of Lost London – Work, Wealth, Poverty and Change, 1870 -1945 by Philip Davies (Foreword by Dan Cruickshank)
Panoramas of Lost London, this week’s Random Book of the Week, is a collection of photographs originally commissioned by London Country Council to capture buildings, streets and neighbourhoods before they were lost forever through redevelopment. The images range from the earliest days of photography up until the end of the Second World War. Philip Davies…
Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch
I’d describe Rivers of London, the first in a three-book series of the same name, as The Bill meets Harry Potter. It tells the story of DC Peter Grant, a young policeman who is recruited to the Metropolitan Police Service division that deals with magic and the supernatural and becomes the first English apprentice wizard…
By Permission of Heaven: The Story of the Great Fire of London by Adrian Tinniswood
This week’s random book of the week is not actually that random, but please do not ‘do’ me under the trade descriptions act, as this is only a book blog, and we really do not have to take things so seriously. On its 350th anniversary, it seems timely to present to you Adrian Tinniswood’s engrossing history…
Frances Kray The Tragic Bride: The True Story of Reggie Kray’s First Wife by Jacky Hyams
Everything about the cover of this tale of gangster bridal woe screamed ‘THIS REALLY IS NOT YOUR SORT OF BOOK, BRONTE’: the Woman’s-Own-headline-esque title, the rose-between-two-Kray-shaped-thorns picture of its heroine, and the melodramatic front blurb trumpeting ‘the first full account of the beautiful, innocent young woman who married Reggie Kray – and became trapped in…
A book-related proposal of marriage (EEK!)
I’m going to go off on a bit of a tangent here, book-crew. I got engaged at the weekend. ‘NOT RELEVANT. BOG OFF TURNER!’ I hear you cry. And you would be right. But please bear with. For this was a BOOK-RELATED PROPOSAL OF MARRIAGE. On Saturday I woke up very excited as I thought…
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