Recommendations
FICTION, REPORTAGE, MEMOIR AND PHOTOGRAPHY
Granta: the Magazine of New Writing
No. 65 “London: the lives of the city” (Editor: Ian Jack, Spring 1999)
Soho photography; reportage about Shirley Porter (remember her?); 1950s photography; writing from Hanif Kureishi, Doris Lessing, Andrew O’Hagan, Will Self and Amit Chaudhuri. Editorial introduction by Ian Jack.
NON-FICTION
Peter Ackroyd, 2001. London: the Biography (London: Vintage)
A mammoth work covering theatre, food, crime and punishment, the suburbs and much much more. Perfect to dip into and read a chapter here and there.
Bold, J. and Hinchcliffe, T. 2009. Discovering London’s Buildings (London: Francis Lincoln Ltd)
A wonderful celebration of London’s architecture, with twelve walks for the reader to take including the City, Westminster, Barbican, Chelsea and Legal London. Packed with splendid photographs (and not only the usual ones you expect to see).
Leapman, M. (ed.) 1989. The Book of London (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson)
Murray, V. 1989. My East End
Priestley, JB. 1970. The Edwardians (London: William Heinemann Ltd)
Swinnerton, J. 2004. The London Companion (London: Robson Books)
The National Gallery in Wartime
FILMS
84 Charing Cross Road (David Hugh Jones, 1987)
Anne Bancroft; Anthony Hopkins; Judi Dench
Not only a lovely correspondence between literature-lover and bookseller, but a subtle depiction of the changing society during that correspondence. Unexpectedly sad.
10 Rillington Place (Richard Fleischer, 1971)
Richard Attenborough; Judy Geeson; John Hurt
London is all post-war gloom and fog in this splendidly creepy true story of John Christie. Attenborough is very watchably seedy and sinister as Christie. Timothy Evans was posthumously pardoned in 1966.
