Favorite London Novels?
 

We have taken advantage of American's Europe sale and are going to London for Thanksgiving (actually traveling to LHR on Thanksgiving Day). I would love suggestions on your favorite fiction, set in London, so that I am in a proper British mood! I am not a romance novel reader, but love historical fiction, spy novels, mysteries...

There've been some very good threads on this topic in the past. Here's a fairly recent one with some good ideas to get you started:

http://www.fodors.com/community/euro...avel-books.cfm

You're right and I should know better about checking earlier threads first. Guess I am so excited about an unexpected trip, I just didn't think. Great thread and thanks!

hi paris,

anything by Dickens is very atmospheric - Oliver is a classic, largely set in London. from the ones mentioned on the thread quoted above, I'd suggest the Lord Peter Whimsey novels and John Mortimer's books about Rumpole are well-worth reading.

have a great trip,

regards, ann

Edward Rutherford's <I>London </I> and Peter Ackroyd's <I>London: The Biography </I>.

I forgot to mention H.V. Morton's <I> In Search of London</I>. It's not of the historical fiction genre but an excellent travel guide for the city. I highly recommend it.

The mystery series by C.J. Sansom is incredible-all mysteries set at the time of Henry Vii. The books "Dark Fire" and Revelation" are both set in LOndon and they are really gripping.

That's Henry VIII.:)

Ann, thank you. Read Dickens as a youngster...I think it might be wise to read those again. I love series books as well, so the Whimsey and Rumpole sound great.

Historytraveler, thank you. The Rutherford book is on my list.

Mnapoli, I am definitely going to grab one or both of those Sansom books.

All wonderful recommendations! I am taking my list to Borders and Half-Price Books tomorrow.

Don't you just love Half-Price Books? When I was there a few weeks ago they had the first of the Maisie books by Violet Winspear recommended on that other thread. I think I paid somewhere around 5 bucks for it. A very good deal!

Oops, that should be Jacqueline Winspear!

Howards End. If you don't want to read it, you can always rent the DVD at Blockbuster.

I adore EM Forster.

So much depends upon the British umbrella.

Thin

If you like mystery novels, try Elizabeth George's series featuring Inspector Lynley.

Thin's recommendation is one of the best you'll ever get.

A very nice novel set in contemporary London is According to Mark by Penelope Lively.

How about Brief Lives by Anita Brookner?

Have you read About A Boy by Nick Hornby? Very good.

You need go no further than Rumpole of the Bailey, by the late, great John Mortimer. You can visit every single spot he talks about, but need to know the real name (I can help with this, having a little OCD on the subject). For example, Pommeroy's Wine bar on Fleet Street is, in fact, El Vino, where you might enjoy a vintage "Chateau Thames Embankment". It helped that I worked right around the corner for 4 years!

Check out <i>London</i>, by Donna Dailey & John Tomedi in the Bloom's Literary Places series and Roger Tagholm's <i>Walking Around Literary London</i>.

Good grief! I'll be reading for months! : ) Thank you all so much. Glad I haven't made it to the bookstore yet today. CAPH, I have read all (I think) of the Maisie Dobbs books and have enjoyed them very much.

Good to know, paris! I haven't yet gotten to that first one. But it's definitely in my "pile"!

Will Thomas's Barker/Llewelyn series (not the second book -- that takes place mainly in Liverpool and Paris) would fit the bill, and it's really light reading for historical mystery fiction. These are set about 125 years ago. Half-Price Books should have some of them -- the big HPB in Dallas usually does. Also the three books by David Liss featuring Benjamin Weaver are solid period-piece mysteries in Hanoverian London.

Good friend of mine touts Fever Pitch by Nick Hornby. If you live and die with the ups and downs of any sports team, you can identify (the book is about an Arsenal soccer fanatic, not some whacknut Redsux fan like in the movie).

The absolute classic spy novel that takes place in London is Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, which LeCarre wrote during the Cold War before he went completely off his head.

Little Dorrit, walk along the south side of the river towards Borough Market and visit 'Clink Street'