Rachel HoldsworthLondon Literary Locations: The Borribles
Last year, the Borribles trilogy won our poll to find the best London novel. If you never came across Michael de Larrabeiti's tales of pointy-eared urchin tribes as a child, you missed what is basically Lord of the Rings set in south-west London.
The first book sees a small band of Borrible Adventurers set out on a mission from Battersea to Wimbledon to defeat their deadly enemies, the Rumbles (to all intents and purposes Wombles, with just enough alterations to make it funny and avoid copyright litigation). From our point of view the author's genius lies in describing the exact route the Borribles take, so we set out one sunny day last month to follow it as best we could. And it was pretty easy; the only difference from the book and reality 35 years on is how much more gentrified Battersea and Wandsworth have become.
Photos author's own, page numbers refer to The Borrible Trilogy published by Pan in 2003.
Map of the Borribles' route, plus important points along the way.
Key:
Blue - route taken by river
Red - rough route taken underground
Green - route taken through the streets