Reading about all the members of the Bloomsbury group is a pleasure. If you are interested in the artists and writers of this time, you won't be disappointed.

I recently read and enjoyed London Bridges by Jane Stevenson. The story goes back to an Orthodox church destroyed in the Blitz and the current law firm and an old financier who is the last one who knows the history. It's a fairly lighthearted murder and mayhem story and quite interesting.

Oddly enough, there's been some correspondence in my London newspaper on this topic, arising from the 'One City, One Book' campaigns in the US (*one* book for New York...?!) Some suggestions on London have been Michael Moorcock's 'Mother London' and anything by Iain Sinclair (try 'Downriver'). <BR>Ackroyd's 'London - a Biography' is wonderful but a big read. His novels 'Hawksmoor', 'Chatterton' and 'The Great Fire of London' might be an easier way in! Matthew Kneale's 'Sweet Thames' relates to the great cholera outbreaks of the mid 19th century. Arnold Bennett's 'Riceyman Steps' and 'Buried Alive' are set in the early 20th century. More recently Michael Frayn's 'Towards the End of the Morning' is a hilarious view of the journalism of the 1950s, and 'A Landing on the Sun' about a backwater of the Civil Service more recently. Keith Waterhouse's 'Thinks' is a hilarious and extended answer to another thread on this forum (reasons to hate living in London). I'd put in a word for Ben Richards writing about the East End of modern London (if you can find them in the US) - 'The Silver River' and 'Throwing the House Out of the Window'.

topping for Andrea

Hi Vita<BR> Sherlock Holmes. Not only will you enjoy the stories, but you can visit Baker Street and the other places mentioned.

Nick Hornby, especially About a Boy, and Bruce Alexander's Sir John Fielding mysteries, which are set at Bow Street Magistrates Court in the 18th century, or Anthony Powell's Dance to the Music of Time (a four-volume set).