A Literary Guide To London

From the Globe at Bankside to the Wimpole Street home of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, London is, and always has been, crammed with literary life. In this meticulously researched guide, Ed Glinert gives a detailed survey of London, by area and by postcode, taking us street by street (and map by map) through all of the literary history that waits there. His is a book full of fascinating facts (for example, that Keats's Grecian urn was made in Staffordshire), of gossip (who sent love notes to whom in the British Library) and of snippets concerning famous residents and workers (such as PG Wodehouse's disastrous time at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank). It lists local bookshops and their specialities and provides addresses that have appeared in novels my authors as disparate as Charles Dickens, Arthur Conan Doyle and Virginia Woolf. There are also six themed walks to take around London. Immensely enjoyable and hugely entertaining, this is an absolute must for all book lovers and readers.