London

A Scream in Soho

It's London in wartime, in the blackout before the Blitz and the streets of Soho are full of characters straight…

2 years ago

The East Coker Opera House Murders #1940Club

Based on his published letters,1940 was a busy year for T.S.Eliot. He was based in London and working at Faber…

2 years ago

The Pineapple Party

Norman Pearson returned towards the end of January, after an absence in Spain and Portugal, bearing two bananas, two oranges…

2 years ago

Comfort Food and Comfort Books

A recent NYTimes Cooking newsletter from Melissa Clark drew my attention to the article about Raghavan Iyer by Kim Severson …

2 years ago

Our Flag Stays Red – Communists and Snore Detectives at the Savoy

In Our Flag Stays Red (1948) Phil Piratin - the Communist Party MP for Mile End - wrote an account…

2 years ago

Fizz and Filth – Kate Atkinson and Babylon London 1926

A novel by Kate Atkinson is always something to look forward to and I've just finished reading her latest -…

2 years ago

Summers and Adventure

It's all a long time ago now but I spent the summer of 1969 playing. With a shiny new degree…

2 years ago

The Sun Like a Force-Ripe Orange

The sun shining ... just there in the sky like a force-ripe orange That striking image is from Samuel Selvon's…

3 years ago

Three Lords and a Lady

A musical backdrop to Unreal City: the London of the Lonely Londoners When the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury in…

4 years ago

A Street in London W11

Six stops on the Hammersmith and City from Euston Square to Westbourne Park, up the stairs, along the bridge over…

4 years ago

Out of the London Mud Come the London Cabbages

A friend is reading Steven Johnson's The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science,…

4 years ago

About Isms He was Never Wrong: George Orwell at the Café Royal

George Orwell had an interesting chance encounter with a blasé conspiracy theorist at the Café Royal in 1940. (See left). The young…

5 years ago

Much Ado About Food: Kate Atkinson and Elizabeth David

Novelists and film makers often struggle to find the right period details to anchor their work in a particular era.…

5 years ago

Much Ado About Deception and Delusion: Kate Atkinson’s Transcription and London 1940

The sandwich was no comfort, it was a pale limp thing a long way from the déjeuner sur l'herbe of her…

5 years ago

Falling Wall

I began this post in 2017. The original focus was Louis MacNeice's's poem "Brother Fire". MacNeice was a fire-watcher during…

6 years ago