Your favourite London novels

[toblerone3]

Quite a few of Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine's novels are set in Maida Vale (where she lives) which I like because I know the area really well. There's one that really good but I can't remember what it's called

Grasshopper - Paddington/ Bayswater
House of Stairs - Notting Hill/ Maida Vale
Keys to the Street - Regents Park, St John's Wood, Sommerstown
Asta's Book - Haggerston, Hackney
King Solomon's Carpet - North London Tube Lines

All fantastic London books by Ruth Rendell/Barbara Vine set in London and very well researched.

 

[jayeola]

priory park school is beside larkhall park. from central lomdon you'd come over a vauxhall or wandsworth bridge and onto wandswort rd. Maybe priory place did exist.
Would loved to have quoted the original text naming those streets. Bit hard on this god awful phone. Grrr. Still love sherlock though.

 

[Pickman's model]

what, no mentions of

sam selvon, the lonely londoners
bram stoker, dracula
arthur machen, the three impostors
robert louis stevenson, jekyll and hyde
charles dickens, (inter alia) christmas carol, oliver twist, barnaby rudge, bleak house
chesterton, the napoleon of notting hill, the man who was thursday
jack london, people of the abyss
george gissing, the netherworld, the odd women
orwell, keep the aspidistra flying
virginia woolf, mrs dalloway

 

[Pickman's model]

Yup, here's one example. There are others. I think he goes to streatham at some point too.



Some of those street names don't exist. Wordsworth Road for example. Perhaps it did exist back then, thats quite possible. But I think its more likely he meant wandsworth road since he's just crossed vauxhall bridge. Perhaps he wrote wandsworth road and whoever set the type misread his handwriting?

Its Wandsworth road that takes you from vauxhall bridge to "Priory Road & Lark Hall Lane" which are the next quoted road. Priory Road, in fact no longer exists but I'm sure it used to be there since that area was heavily bombed and there is still Priory Mews, Grove, and Lane I think. Lark Hall Lane is still there, as are Rochester Row and Vincent Square from earlier on.

Stockwell Place and Robert Street don't exist but then maybe Doyle was not to bothered about accuracy down to that minute level. I suppose it doesn't matter. Forgive the map pedantry.

http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/1859map/map1859.html

i don't know which edition of sign of four you're using: but it's my recollection that it was fairly accurate. as you say, the bombing in the war not to mention various 'improvements' have distorted london somewhat. you'll see from my link priory road clearly in existence in 1859

 

[pseudonarcissus]

The Lonely Londoners - Samuel Selvon

definitely one to read, London in the 1950s from a Trinidadian perspective

 

[pseudonarcissus]

what, no mentions of

sam selvon, the lonely londoners

you beat me to it, I was looking for that quote about the buses running along like they are going to capsize...

 

[lang rabbie]

Stockwell Place and Robert Street don't exist but then maybe Doyle was not to bothered about accuracy down to that minute level. I suppose it doesn't matter. Forgive the map pedantry.

Stockwell Place was the former name for the terrace of houses now numbered as the low even side of Stockwell Road. Not so sure about Robert Street, but that could be another type-setters error from the first edition not corrected in subsequent editions. (Most editions have Wandsworth Road correctly spelled.)

 

[scalyboy]

Stockwell Place was the former name for the terrace of houses now numbered as the low even side of Stockwell Road. Not so sure about Robert Street, but that could be another type-setters error from the first edition not corrected in subsequent editions. (Most editions have Wandsworth Road correctly spelled.)

Robsart Street??

London novels:

Riceyman Steps by Arnold Bennett, 1920s, set around that odd Clerkenwell/Lloyd Baker Street/King's Cross Road area that Machen also wrote of. Curious, evocative little book.

Robert Irwin, Exquisite Corpse and Satan Wants Me, partly 1930s and 1960s London respectively, good on period detail.

 

[boohoo]

Neverwhere is a favourite. Lonely Werewolf girl by Martin Millar.

 

[Pickman's model]

i've got a copy of elliott o'donnell's "strange cults and secret societies of modern london" but have never figured out if it's fiction of fact. tho' i tend towards fiction.

 

[ALondonStation]

Thumbs up to all suggestions so far (and thanks for a few new ideas). My favourites are Colin MacInnes' London trilogy; City of Spades, Absolute Beginners, and Mr. Love and Justice.

And The Picture of Dorian Gray. And Martin Amis' novels various.

 

[Paulie Tandoori]

Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd is brilliant (and quite scary)

Yes, Ackroyd has written extensively about London, I really enjoyed Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem, very very good and I also remember English Music as being entertaining, very shadowy and a bit creepy.

 

[monsterbunny]

Twenty Thousand Streets Under The Sky by Patrick Hamilton. Originally published as a trilogy, now collected in one volume. Set against the backdrop of a pub situated south of the Euston Road and very evocative of pre-war London. The final part, 'The Plains of Cement' about barmaid Ella and her appalling, older admirer was for me the best of the three.

I must second that recommendation. Indeed anything by Patrick Hamilton. The Midnight Bell was my fave.

Lisa of Lambeth by Somerset Maugham.

 

[toblerone3]

I personally found it really tedious.... he starts his walk off in Greenwich and heads up to the M25 via the Lea Valley. This section of the book I found interesting as it's an area very familiar to me, however, as he continued past Edmonton I found it harder and harder to stay engaged and by the time he reached the M25 he had practically lost me so I didn't make it far round.

I was given a copy of his book on Hackney also, but this time even despite the fact that the whole book is discussing the place I have lived for the last decade or so I still couldn't stay engaged - I just his machine gun style sentences and incessant meandering from the point a little hard to bear.

One of my favourite novels based in London is London Fields by Martin Amis.

Quality!

I really enjoyed Hackney: That Red Rose Empire despite not living in Hackney really interesting "excavation" of local London mythology from the 1950s to the 1990s. Also gives an insight into the radical/progressive politics in London in the 1960s/70s.

Found London Orbital a bit harder going at time but was just so charmed by the idea of a walk around the M25 that i kept going and I think its an important document/state-of-play book of the physical/political fabric of the mid-Blair years around the turn of the millenium.

Found London Fields a bit tedious to be honest. Very dated.

 

[matt m]

yeah, i'm a big fan of Iain Sinclair. I like his novels too - Downriver and Radon Daughters are very funny, and highly impressive at times, if quite heavy going. Read em in little bits. I've come back to Iain Sinclair ten years after I read a lot of him. It's strange - he's not quite as good a writer as I remember: a lot of his list-y, note-form sentences are terrible actually - less an impressionistic style than a massively over-used writerly tick. But he's redeemed by an aggressive vocabulary and a very labile way with a metaphor.

The book of Sinclair's that I think is the most accessible is Lights Out For The Territory - it's non-fiction and probably the most "London" of the lot.

A very enjoyable pulp London crime novel is "London Blues" by Anthony Frewin, from 1997. (Don't bother with Frewin's other stuff - it's shit.)

Also:

Stewart Home: "Slow Death" and "Blow Job"

 

[Pickman's model]

what, no mentions for the many novels sax rohmer set in london, which are among the best of his 'fu manchu' series?

 

[Pickman's model]

one of my favourite novels set in north london is 'cop killer' by donald gorgon

 

[Pickman's model]

& i'm surprised no one's brought up 'anarchist' by one ian bone, the climax of which is set in london.

 

[Maggot]

One of my favourite novels based in London is London Fields by Martin Amis.

Quality!

Yes, also the Rachel Papers,

I can't find it now but there was a thread a year or so ago that started about a book set in Loughborough Junction and ended up about any books set in London. Someone (may have been me, can't remember) found a website that used a google map and labels to chart which and where books were set in London. Can't find it now. It was a really nice idea for a website. you could add ones yourself if they weren't on there yet.

PS. Guardian Hay Festival calling for assistance in designing their london literary festival/book club. this seems an appropriate place to mention it:

"Do you want to talk about Martin Amis’ Money or William Wordsworth’s ‘Upon Westminster Bridge’? Hanif Kureishi’s The Buddha of Suburbia or Samuel Pepys’ diaries? Or all of them? We’ll build the programme around you and bring in the most entertaining writers and thinkers from inside the M25. Please email us and help us design the festival."

http://www.hayfestival.com/portal/kingsplace.aspx?skinid=1

here's the thread: http://www.urban75.net/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=279897

Top recommendations!

 

[Etymologist]

what, no mentions for the many novels sax rohmer set in london, which are among the best of his 'fu manchu' series?

Apparently there is a Blue Plaque at 51 Herne Hill (by the junction with Danecroft Road) that marks the former home of author Sax Rohmer. Every time I go past on the 68 I try to spot it. Never managed yet. Just tried looking on google street view. No sign of it. Anyone ever spotted that?

 

[Pie 1]

Has anyone ever read London Orbital by Iain Sinclair?

I always fancied giving that a go.

Yes. Very good.

My recomendations include:

Colour of Memory - Geoff Dyer
&
Youth - JM Coetzee

 

[Wolfie Smith]

I love the Christopher Fowler novels - his detectives, Bryant and May are based on top of Mornington Crescent station, Roofworld, Black Soho, Disturbia, Spanky....unusual, arcane facts about London as well as the more recognisable stuff

These look great - have just ordered a couple online!

Loving this thread. I've seem to have read nothing but London based novels for a while now and am pleased that there's many many more to try.

 

[ash]

I would recommend 'the long firm'and 'he kills coppers' (not sure if the latter is set in London), by Jake Arnott. On the same underworld theme how about 'layer cake' by J.J. Connolly.
Ben Richards 'throwing the house out of the window' is good as is Alexandra barons 'the lowlife'; I am not sure if this is still in print'.
Just read Salaam Brick lane by Tarquin Hall that was very funny and interesting if you know the east end.
East of Acre Lane and other books By Alex Wheattle are good for Brixton and the south. Also for the south I liked 'the room of lost things' by Stella Duffy set around Loughborough Junction. Not fiction but an interesting social study of working class life is 'round about a pound a week' by Maud Pember Reeves first published 1913 and set in Lambeth Walk.
Estates by Lynsey Hanley is a (surprisingly) fascinating account of the history and development of the housing estate.
I agrre with previous posters that anything by patrick Hamilton is a good bet.

 

[Treacle Toes]

The Lonely Londoners - Samuel Selvon

definitely one to read, London in the 1950s from a Trinidadian perspective

One of my favourite books ever!

 

[Maurice Picarda]

Bleeding London, by the generally underrated Geoff Nicholson.

 

[Treacle Toes]

London: The Novel. Edward Rutherford

http://www.amazon.co.uk/London-Novel-Edward-Rutherfurd/dp/0345455681

 

[ash]

Does anyone pick up 'Smoke" ? Not a boook but a quarterly look at london, quirky and focused on oddities and local things.

 

[19sixtysix]

Not exactly a London novel but Irvine Welsh's Trainspotting brings back memories of London Apprentice pub on old street.

 

[Maggot]

Does anyone pick up 'Smoke" ? Not a boook but a quarterly look at london, quirky and focused on oddities and local things.

Yes, it's a good read. See also One Eye Grey: http://www.fandmpublications.co.uk/pages/oneeyegrey.htm