Modern Library Chronicles: London : A History (Paperback)

from broughtonhouse

No, you can't cover a city as vast and complex as London in 240 pages. This one has a go but doesn't quite get there. As an introduction though it gives an idea of the importance of this city in world development. It would have been good to have less ranting about 'Red' Ken Livingstone but perhap...

from dono421846

Definitely presents an idiosyncratic point of view. Some of the specifics seem questionable (can it possibly be true that it was "in the reign of Elizabeth that torture was first used in England"?). Moreover, that he singles out the Soane Museum -- an exemplar of excessive dilettantism if ever th...

from nsestak

Great read prior to a visit to London.

from billiecat

Having read Wilson's "The Victorians" and enjoyed it, I thought I would find his short history of my favorite city a good read. Unfortunately, not. It is too short. How I could have thought that the millennia of history for this great, sprawling city could be stuffed into 240 pages is one thing. ...