Rating: 
Summary: my favorite book on how to hear the "voice" of a city
Review: This book has been criticized for its informal style, its anecdotal quality, and its lack of chronology; yet the title tells us up front that it's not a "history," but a "biography." It treats London as a person best understood through a kind of case history or genealogy. The author has done his homework, but he also goes well beyond the mere facts and dates to listen carefully into the images, motifs, and themes of London's past and present, and this makes the book immensely valuable as a deeper-than-usual resource into the "soul" of a place the author obviously loves despite its shadows and ugly spots.
Rating:
Summary: my favorite book on how to hear the "voice" of a city
Review: This book has been criticized for its informal style, its anecdotal quality, and its lack of chronology; yet the title tells us up front that it's not a "history," but a "biography." It treats London as a person best understood through a kind of case history or genealogy. The author has done his homework, but he also goes well beyond the mere facts and dates to listen carefully into the images, motifs, and themes of London's past and present, and this makes the book immensely valuable as a deeper-than-usual resource into the "soul" of a place the author obviously loves despite its shadows and ugly spots.
Rating:
Summary: Love affair with a city...
Review: This immense compilation of research, observations, and vivid imagery about the city of London is a remarkable feat. As one reads through the book, starting with the original settlers of the Londinium area, through Roman occupation, and eventually a melding of cultures, one senses that Mr. Ackroyd breathes not just life, but a strong personality into the city of London. One can almost feel her shift and groan through the ages, accompanied by fires, pollution, bombings, and restructuring of buildings. I felt that the author was talking more about a personality that he loved rather than a city.What I like most about the book is the organized, easy to follow timeline. Literally peppered with quotes from Londoners and the author's personal feelings, it was fascinating to read, and simple to digest. I had the opportunity to read the book once during a trip to this city and prior to another visit. The history of landmarks opened up a new perspective. I was not just seeing Covent Garden with the current stores and structures. I was walking in a former "Convent Garden", that later became a market, which is currently a market of street talent, modern stores, and different walks of life. London does not change easily. I highly recommend this book to individuals interested in English History and people who love to visit London. It provides an in depth perspective of this incredible city, delving below the surface, and introducing a London that is mysterious and engaging.
Rating: 
Summary: A guide to life in The City
Review: This is a long book, but it reads pretty quickly. There are some short comings, some boring parts. The book reminded me of touring a new city with an enthusiastic friend who knows the details and the story of every crossroads. What better city than London, the book made me enjoy my own city for the sometimes unappealing elements, but more importantly is a real asset when I have turned to any piece of literature that talks about London. The author mentions how some literary figures have used London as a setting, and the different sections of the city can now evoke the emotion the author, like Dickens, or even LeCarre meant by what part of London they are talking about. I recommend this to anyone interested in their own community, in the past, and in good writting.
The writing is very good, and the book is finely crafted to lead from one section of the city to another as he progresses from one topic to another. The good, the bad, and the ugly of London have made me want to take a trip across the pond I have put off too long already.
Rating: 
Summary: Yeah, but...
Review: This is a strange book. Astoundingly well researched, chock full of informative and entertaining pieces of history, the one thing it can't legitimately be called is a "biography" of an entire city. It is focused so exclusively on only half the story, on the poor, indigent and underclass, that it reads like a history of cruelty, filth and despair. You have only to look at a sample of chapter headings: Violent Delights
Painting the Town Red [as in, with blood]
A Note on Suicide
Horrible Murder
A Rogues Gallery
Waste Matter
A Bad Odour
The Stinking Pile And so on. It's all true, certainly, but it should be obvious that it must be only half the story: where's the art? the music? the literature? where are the decent people and institutions without which no city could have grown, much less survived plague, famine and fire? And I'm mystified by blurbs touting this as a "gift" and "tapestry of inspiration and love" to London -- after all, at one point he states that "Life, in London, can then be construed as a game which few can win." Again: "The city itself becomes a vast zoo in which all of the cages have been unlocked." The author also has a tendency to strain when reaching for the grand summation: "Here, too, is part of the mystery of London where suffering and mimicry, penury and drama, are aligned with each other to a degree where they become indistinguishable." ... Say what? "The connection between money and ordure is here flagrantly revealed." ... What connection is that, exactly? "Sex, in the city, has commonly been associated with dirt and disease... The resemblance exists even within the language itself; "hard core" [in] its original meaning, in a London context, was that of "hard, rock-like rubbish" used in the building of roads and houses. Where there is rubbish, there is also death." ... Huh? All in all I enjoyed reading it, but the author seems to see London only as place which has survived its own awfulness. Not sure that can be called a biography, really, it reads more like a fascinating, entertaining, bitter, misanthropic complaint. Strange.
Rating:
Summary: Yeah, but...
Review: This is a strange, ultimately disquieting book. While highly informative and entertaining, it can't legitimately be called a "biography" -- the term presupposes at least some pretense towards a well-rounded, inclusive approach to the subject. This book is focused so exclusively on only half the story -- on the poor, indigent and underclass -- that it reads like a history of cruelty, filth and despair. You have only to look at a sample of chapter headings: Violent Delights
Painting the Town Red [as in, with blood]
A Note on Suicide
Horrible Murder
A Rogues Gallery
Waste Matter
A Bad Odour
The Stinking Pile And so on. It's all true, certainly, but it should be obvious that it must be only half the story: where's the art? the music? the literature? Where are the decent people and institutions without which no city could have grown, much less survived plague, famine and fire? What of schools, hospitals, museums? Oh, they're there, for twelve pages or so... At one point the author implicitly acknowledges this extreme bias himself: "The poor and desperate have always been a part of London's history, and it might be said that the city is most recognisable by the shadow they cast." Might; might not. And I'm utterly mystified by blurbs touting this as a "gift" and "tapestry of inspiration and love" -- after all, at one point he declares that "Life, in London, can be construed as a game which few can win." Again: "The city itself becomes a vast zoo in which all of the cages have been unlocked." And just so we're clear about it: "The citizens of London live in a state of unnatural energy and uproar; they live in foul houses with no light or air; they are driven by the whip of business and money-making; they are surrounded by all the images of lust and violence. They are living in Bedlam." Some tapestry of love, that. The author also has a regrettable tendency to strain reaching for the Grand Summation: "Here, too, is part of the mystery of London where suffering and mimicry, penury and drama, are aligned with each other to a degree where they become indistinguishable." ... Say what? "The connection between money and ordure is here flagrantly revealed." ... What connection is that, exactly? "Sex, in the city, has commonly been associated with dirt and disease... The resemblance exists even within the language itself; "hard core," in a London context, was that of "hard, rock-like rubbish;" where there is rubbish, there is also death." ... Huh? At times this verges on the hysterical: in reference to a comment that Victorian London was "like the heart of all the universe," Ackroyd states: "There is a suggestion that London is an emblem of all that is darkest, and most extreme, within existence itself. Is it the heart of empire, or the heart of darkness? Or is one so inseparable from the other that human effort and labour become no more than the expression of rage and the appetite for power?" And I'm troubled most by an underlying current of something that is either existential despair or exceptional condescension on the author's part -- he writes: "To live in the city is to know the limits of human existence... To be perpetually reminded that the single human life is worth very little, that it is reckoned merely as a part of the aggregate sum, may induce a sense of futility." This from a man who has been awarded, and presumably accepted, the Whitbread Biography Award; the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award; the James Tait Black Memorial Prize; and The Guardian's fiction prize. So life is hard, is it? Indeed. What makes that a biography of London?
Rating:
Summary: Very well researched pot pourri of facts
Review: This is described as a biography rather than a history - but what is the difference? According to my dictionary : one is an account of a life, the other is an account of past events - same thing? In fact the first 4 chapters are a conventional history, from pre-Roman through to Early Middle Ages. It's only thereafter that we get chapters on individual 'themes' that cover all ages, so you keep going back & forth hundreds of years every few pages. Unless you're a native/resident of London, you'll probably enjoy the book better if you have a London Tourist Guidebook to hand. There are a couple of Modern maps, but only of the City & West End, so trying to understand what's being described outside the Roman City Walls is sometimes difficult. For example, why wouldn't a stranger think that Kentish Town is near Kent, ie to the South & East, when in fact its to the North & West? Also an Underground/Subway map might be useful. Whilst there's descriptions of the transformation due to the docks & the railways, there's no mention of air travel (whether it be from Croydon/Heathrow/Gatwick/City). In fact it is interesting to note all the things that never get a mention : OK so the book is about London, but there's not a word about Queen Victoria (Winston Churchill gets a one-line quote). There's a picture of the Thames Flood Barrier on the front cover, but no mention of it in the chapter dedicated to flooding. Plenty of pictures of London Bridge over the ages (and very nice they are too), but no pictures whatsoever of Big Ben or Houses of Parliament, Buckingham Palace or Trafalgar Square, Tower Bridge or Tower of London? London is famous for its Museums & Art Galleries, and it would have been interesting to read about their foundation. But apart from 3 mentions of the Tate Modern in the chapter on South Bank, that's your lot. No mention of even the existence of the British Museum, Natural History Museum, Science Museum, Victoria & Albert Museum, Tate Gallery, National Gallery, Royal Academy etc etc - surely there could have been 2-3 pages on those? For all the talk about commerce and in which streets you could buy what goods, there's no mention of the foundation of larger emporia such as Harrods or Selfridges?
So all in all, very pleased for what is to be found in there, but disappointed at what has been overlooked.
Rating:
Summary: For the Anglophile
Review: Those of you hankering for British history will love this book. It takes you through English history through the "eyes" of London. I loved it!
Rating:
Summary: Maybe it's because
Review: To a Londoner in Tokyo this book's celebration of the persistence of London seemed all the more affecting (Tokyo being essentially a temporary and soulesss city). Readable, full of knowledge, facts and quirks, it's a book that can make you realise why you can love London - even when it is being most unlikeable. Here is dirt, earth, fire, humanity (and plague, pestilence, smoke, stone). Expect less about monied London, no TV-style Dickens and more about the staying power of a city grown from ancient roots (still there) via mediaeval filth and real Dickens-esque poverty to a modern rebirth. Londoners may each find the odd exclusion (no mention of the 600-odd sailors who died when their ship sank in the new, Victorian, downstream sewage outlet, for example - one of my favourite stories) and the odd inclusion (which flowers grow in Watford?!) but they are mostly quibbles in such a panoramic vision that reveals far, far more. In fact, the only real irritants - andwhy I only gave it 4 stars - are minor text ones ("And so London is...", "And thus it becomes...", "And this shows London as..." conclusions become repetitive - and on more than one occasion, the conclusion itself is questionable) which sometimes may be a result of the book's construction and later somewhat slack editing as much as of original writing. But the overall impact is in its scope, Ackroyd's dedication to and love of the city, in its detail and authority, and in the thrall it exerts. London was truly the first modern city and so much elsewhere flows from this. (But in writing it as a whole biography - not necessarily chronologically - Ackroyd maybe doesn't allow enough for other cities. In more recent years if you want commerce you could try Hong Kong; crowds, Tokyo; murder, New York etc). But there's no denying what London initiated and what history it encompasses. This is a great - and loving - tribute to a hard and beautiful city. (And to a city that may yet leave that love unrequited.) Hard to say how someone outside London would take it - but then a book titled London: the biography ain't for the lovers of elsewhere.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful character study of a magnificent city
Review: What a wonderful and magical book. It isn't the normal left-to-right chronological history. It is a series of chapters that each examine a different aspect of London's character. That is why it is aptly called a biography. Rather than a sequential history we get a study of the character of this magnificent city. I have grown to love London through a series of business trips that led to a few personal trips. It would be very satisfying to be able to live in London for some period of time, I think. But... You don't need to have been to London or know much about it to get a great deal from this book. But if you can bring some experience and background to reading it you will find the rewards for reading so much greater. As background material Stephen Inwood's wonderful "A History of London", now in paperback, provides a splendid chronology of London's history. I recommend it highly and you can read my comments on it on Amazon.com. My personal taste is to read the Inwood and then read the Ackroyd. But the point is to have both. Together they tell more about London than either does separately. They are complementary rather than competitive. Simplistically, you can say the Inwood book gives you the breadth and the Ackroyd book provides the depth. Also, you will get more out of this book if you have a good map of London at your side. The book does have some maps, but if you want a good feel for how all of this fits into the London of today you might want to have a London A-Z with you as a reference. A standard one has the ISBN: 0850397529. Also, another magnificent companion to this book is "The History of London in Maps" its ISBN# is:1558594957 although it has limited availability. London is an easy city to love and I think Ackroyd says it so well on page 93: "The History of London is a palimpsest of different realities and lingering truths." And in the books last two sentences: "It is illimitable. It is infinite London." Glorious!
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