What Is The Best London Novel?

My fave’s Mrs Dalloway. Oliver Twist isn’t bad either: much nastier than the musical…

Wow, loads of Tweets about this.

For the record, mine’s From Hell then Mrs Dalloway. Would also nominate Hangover square, the Shardlake books, the Baroque Cycle, and The House of dr Dee (best of the Ackroyds).

I’m also a fan of Mrs. Dalloway, though I did read the Satanic Verses recently and found that interpretation of London rather amusing.

The Tiger in the Smoke by Margery Allingham – evocative descriptions of a foggy decrepid London just after WW1, with disabled ex-servicemen reduced to begging. Not a bad whodunnit as well.

I really like Dan Leno & The Limehouse Golum by Peter Ackroyd, and The Lowlife by Alexander Baron

Yeah, Dan Leno’s great. I think Dr Dee slightly pips it from the Ackroyd stable. Actually, most of his books would be high on my list, but none of them quite at the top.

Ooh Peter Ackroyd’s Hawksmoor is good. I’m also very fond of Alison Lurie’s Foreign Affairs. Classics-wise I nominate Charles Dickens: Bleak House.

I’m going to go back and read that incredible opening sequence of Mrs Dalloway, “the leaden circles dissolved in the air….”

Neverwhere!

What a great idea: there are so many great London books.

I love “20,000 Streets under the Sky” by Patrick Hamilton. It’s set in the 1930s and most of it takes place in pubs (around Great Portland Street, Hammersmith and Earls Court, if I remember rightly). Really evocative of that time in London. It slightly beats Hangover Square for me.

I also liked The Night Watch by Sarah Waters – again broght London of the 30s/40s to life for me.

My favourite book set in modern London is Londonstani by Gautam Malkani.

I find Ackroyd really dull though….

As I can only vote for one, I will go for 20,000 streets under the sky.

Alan Moore’s “From Hell”, I think. Worried if I consider for too long I’ll come up with even more contenders to try and decide between…

In the kids’ section, “Stoneheart”, by Charlie Fletcher.

On the relatively obscure front, London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins is pretty good, set in Lambeth and London generally, just before WWII. Lots about night life and (sub)urban desperation.

I love the fact, too, that it has a 1-star review on Amazon, in which the canny reviewer pronounces: “UTTER UNRESEARCHED GARBAGE THAT MY ELEVEN YEAR OLD NIECE COULD OF WROTE!”

Yes, if your niece could go back in time to 1945, when it was published, perhaps she could have wrote it, you illiterate muppet. Oh, and also come up with a masterful evocation of pre-war London life, drawing on her own experience – yes, then perhaps your time-travelling niece could have managed to write this great book. But, on balance, probably not.

Sigh.

Rant over.

Has anyone ever collected the best utterly wide-of-the-mark 1-star reviews from Amazon??

The Diary of a Nobody wins in my book.
Closely followed by Turtle Diary.

There are too many to choose from! 20,000 Streets Under the Sky and Neverwhere definitely get my vote, Muriel Spark’s The Ballad of Peckham Rye is brilliant, funny and strange. My absolute favourite, though is the gothic, foggy atmosphere of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

Mrs Dalloway for me as well. “For having lived in Westminster- how many years now? one feels even in the midst of traffic, or walking at night…” Closely followed by Mother London.

But my favourite London quote would have to be “When you die, you move to a different part of London. That’s all there is to it” (hopefully i got it right, i’m quoting from memory), from that Will Self story about the man who meets his dead mother in hmmm, Islington was it? Or Hampstead?

People’s least favourite ones would make for an interesting discussion as well.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone. And, Marianna, I like the idea in your final sentence.

The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti. That has influenced my childhood as well as my career choice and is a timeless classic, hands down.

It’s a tie between Foreign Affairs by Alison Lurie, and The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst. Both amazing and different.

I second The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti.

+1 for the Borribles!

Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab… which improves with every read.

I second The Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson (Quicksilver, The Confusion, The System of the World). Totally amazing. Natural philosophy, royalty, alchemy, religion, slavery, economy, war, the plague, the great fire, pirates, vagabonds! The man is a genius!!

Mother London (Michael Moorcock)

London Fields by Martin Amis

The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti. One of the most honest portrayals of London you’ll ever read; it’s rooted in the city’s urban geography.

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton is my favourite. It’s mainly set around Soho and mentions so many street names that you can follow in the footsteps of the characters. It captures the atmosphere of London better than any other novel I’ve read, even though it’s set in the 1920s and Euston Road must have changed a lot since then.

Michael de Larrabeiti’s Borrible trilogy by all means!

Interestingly, I read a good London novel this last weekend. Night and the City, by Gerald Kersh. Great characters, great dialog, and a wonderfully evocative view of a lost London underworld.

But I have to say my favorites — the ones I’ve read and re-read, worn out and written about — are Michael de Larrabeiti’s Borrible books.

Somebody mentioned the Borribles. That really took me back. The trilogy is such a fantastic read. I really must find out if they are still in print. If they are not then thats what I would consider a real crime.

Michael de Larrabeiti’s Borribles – slightly dark and great Attitude. I am just sorry that they were not around when I wanted something beyond Swallows and Amazons but before ‘adult’ books.

Definitely the Borribles.

It’s the Borrible Trilogy for me. Captivated by the fictitious adventures of runaway children in the South West of London.

A Borrible! A Borrible! The Borrible Trilogy by Michael De Larrabeiti are the best adventure stories ever! Love them. Don’t Get Caught!!

It has to be The Borrible Trilogy by Michael de Larrabeiti.

Got to agree with the last seven commenters: The Borribles

I’m joining the Borrible bandwagon – the the three books really are THE definitive London books, no contest!

Visibility by Boris Starling. London, The Great Fog and of course Nazis. Fictional intrigue within a real event.
But I guess winner is ‘The Borribles’.
I’m making my reading list.

For me it has to be The Borribles trilogy. Not usually into fantasy but was totally hooked by Michael de Larrabeiti’s story.

The Book of Dave by Will Self

book of dave by Will Self. hands down. no question.

Gosh – so many great books, but for a book that describes so many areas of London in great detail and with great affection, I think I’m going to have to go with the Borribles Trilogy too. They really capture a part of London that has gone now – the terraces and derilict houses that have been replaced with Estate Agents, expensive flats and Starbucks coffee shops. Where kids run free up and down the Wandle, through Clapham and Battersea and round Kings Cross.

Borrible Trilogy was a book that I have enjoyed over and over again, and now as my teenagers read it I see the joy in their eyes as they journey through the chapters.

So hard to bring it down to just one – it’s a toss-up between James Curtis’s The Gilt Kid (for my money, THE best London low-life novel), and JB Priestley’s Angel Pavement, a marvellous, rich and lengthy evocation of life in the London of 1930 (comparable to the aforementioned London Belongs To Me).
I’ve clearly missed something, never having heard of the Borribles, but the ‘fantasy’ aspect of it puts me off me slightly, as does (although I know it shouldn’t) the fact that it’s primarily a children’s work…

Oh, well – looks like i’m too late anyway!
But if anyone’s still reading and likes the sound of my suggestions above, please look for my blog on ‘Lost London literature’.