Books for London (Not Travel Books)
 

Hi,
Any suggestions for books to read to enhance a trip to London. For example, before a trip to Barcelona I read 'Barcelona' by Robert Hughes. I'm looking for suggestions in all genres.
Thanks.

I love Edward Rutherfurd's books, and <i>London</i> was the first one of his I read. His books are long but he does so much research and involves it in great stories.

Oh, you must read "84, Charing Cross Road" and Susan Allen Toth's books.

To me London is all about it's history - and that's what I would head for - history or biography. there's a Tudor craze at the moment but I find the Plantaganets much more fascinating. (Watch the Lion in Winter for a real treat - and a different look at LionHeart).

To get a feel for what London was like 150 or so years ago, read Dickens.

My favorites:

Great Expectations, David Copperfield, and Bleak House.

In the serious history genre:
London: the Biography, by Peter Ackroyd
London: a Social History, by Roy Porter
London: a History, by Francis Sheppard

Of the three, the last is probably the most serious. All three have bibliographies and indexes; Sheppard’s also has end notes.

For the quirky history genre, The Frozen Thames by Helen Humphreys.

I recommed the Maisie Dobbs mystery series by Jaqueline Winspear.

Any of Mark Billingham's police procedurals/thrillers. Ruth Rendell's The Keys to the Street is set in the environs of Regent's Park and Grasshopper is in and around Little Venice.

For the London that was, Dorothy Sayers' Lord Peter Whimsey mysteries and P. G. Wodehouse.

Some fiction set in London I enjoy
Penelope Lively's City of the Mind
Ian McEwan's Saturday
John Mortimer's Rumpole stories
Zadie Smith's White Teeth

For an entertaining story about Richard III and the princes in the tower, Josephine Tey's Daughter of Time

down and out in london and paris

I enjoy Deborah Crombie's mysteries. Her hardcovers include maps on the inside covers of the areas where the story takes place.

Her most recent, Where Memories Lie, takes place in Notting Hill, Kensington and south to the Thames.

Another is on the Isle of Dogs and Greenwich.

Not all of her books are set in London but you can find which at her website:

http://www.deborahcrombie.com//novels/novels.htm

Anthony Powell, "A Dance to the Music of Time" if you're not travelling in the next month or two.

lavendrye--I thought of Dance to the Music of Time, too, because much of it is set in London. It definitely is a big commitment of time. I read the books years ago then re-read them last year

I second two of the suggestions, 84 Charing Cross Road and London by Edward Rutherford. Charing Cross is a book that can be read in one evening and is a very charming book. London is one of my favorite books of all time but it is quite lengthy. I was put off in the beginning chapter of the book, but pushed through, and was very happy I did.

Nice to get some other suggestions!

Diary of Samuel Pepys.
Down and Out in Paris and London is much more about Paris than London.

For novels set in more contemporary London (within the past 20 years or so), with attendant social and political observations as a background for his characters, try any book by Hanif Querishi ("While London Burns", "The Buddah of Surburbia", etc.) Interesting and entertaining.

M

I just read "Ordinary Thunderstorms" by William Boyd, entirely set in modern London. I thought it was very good.

Read Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere and you won't look at London the same way ever again.

I think H V Morton's books on London and England are at the top of my lists. Though called travel books , they are musch more than that. Lots of history.

what sort of fiction do you like?

This is an old thread, but since it is up again I will add <i>A Far Cry from Kensington</i> by Muriel Sparks.

Here's some other recommendations from an earlier thread:
http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...don-novels.cfm

Oops, I did not see that this was an old thread.

The first book that came to my mind.

White Teeth by Zadie Smith

Thin

Brick Lane by Monica Ali (v good)

Not a novel but Billy Hill - Boss of Britains Underworld will give you an insight into the 50s and 60s in Britain that you wouldn't otherwise get:

http://www.billyhill.co.uk/

As will Profession of Violence about the Krays:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Profession-V.../dp/0006383718

And for these days (but you won't understand a word of it - even I found it hard going, and I'm in the trade - is Layer Cake (the book not the dreadful movie):

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Layer-Cake-J...5559145&sr=1-1

Of course you could just read a load of Dickens' tripe.

I just read For All the Tea in China by Sarah Rose. It's the story of the first industrial espionage--Robert Fortune, gardener, botanist and British East India Company employee, disguised himself and stole tea and secrets concerned with growing, processing and using tea from China in the mid-1800's. And the British Empire--and the world--was changed. I'm an English teacher and tend to read fiction more but this non-fiction tale was quite a story. It's not in the same literary plane as books by (sorry CW--but oh so good to see you back) Dickens or Austen--or Ellis Peters or Dodie Smith or many of the other fine books mentioned above. But it is a pretty good page turner and I learned stuff about tea (and opium and rifling and...) and that era. Highly recommended. Don't wait for the movie! (No I don't know of a movie--but it would sure make a good one.)

texasbookworm, I heard about that book on NPR and put it on my to-read list - thanks for the review! Maybe I'll move it up the list. :)

Seriously have a go at aAyer Cake. If you can follow Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels you might just follow Layer cake (it is IMNVHO the beat british novel of the 90s).

I'll explain the language.

Layer Cake. Layer Cake. bugger.

A popular, entertaining book genre is Psychological misteries set in London and the MASTER at this is Ruth Rendell who also writes as Barbara Vine (even better!). Try "A Sight for Sore Eyes" and "A Fatal Inversion". I get her books at the local library.

Another Rendell/Vine fan here.

Also, Bill Bryson's books are very funny and clever; read NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND about his time in England.


http://www.amazon.com/Notes-Small-Is...653242&sr=1-13

Paul Theroux' KINGDOM BY THE SEA

Cynthia Harrod-Eagles' Detective Bill Slider series.