The Companion Guide to London (new edn) (Companion Guides) [Paperback]

David Piper (Author), Fionnuala Jervis (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 7, 2000 | Series: Companion Guides

David Piper's classic book is the most elegant, lyrical and stimulating of all guides to London, written with undisguised enthusiasm, intimacy and affection. It traverses London from Regent's Park to Lambeth, from the Tower of London to Kensington, with excursions on the river and forays to outlying points of interest, each chapter covering an area which can be comfortably walked in a day. The author draws out the individual character of each district through history, literature, art and architecture and his own informed and entertaining comments. This is an essential guide for those who really want to understand how London has developed; it has been thoroughly revised and updated for this new edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

It is surely remarkable to write of a guidebook that is difficult to put down. But it is certainly true of this one. --Economist

Calls our attention to everything beautiful, historic or curious left in the heart of London. --Sunday Times

Has strong claims to be among the best guidebooks ever written. SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

Urbane, charming and supremely elegantly written, it contrives to impart lustre even to Leicester Square. HOUSE AND GARDEN

That unremittingly excellent work of topography, David Piper's Companion Guide. GUARDIAN (Smallweed) --Various

About the Author

DAVID PIPER was an art historian, director of the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, from 1973-1985, and before that director of the National Portrait Gallery, London.
FIONNUALA JERVIS, who revised the guide, has edited and contributed to numerous historical and art historical publications, and in the course of this revision has walked every step of the way in David Piper's footprints from her home in Kensington.

Product Details

• Paperback: 480 pages
• Publisher: Companion Guides; 8th edition (December 7, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 190063936X
• ISBN-13: 978-1900639361
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,820,308 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Some thoughts on David Piper's Companion Guide to London., March 20, 2000

By 

Joe Cleary (Jacksonville Florida USA>) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Companion Guide to London (Companion Guides) (Paperback)

Many guide books are long on information and short on readablility.This book by David Piper,who was for some time the head of the National Portrait Gallery is both erudite and witty.He covers all the essentials but puts on a gloss of wit and lards his facts with sotries and comments which compliment the text.His chapters on the Wallace Collection and St,Pauls would be hard to beat.I lived in London for many years and read many books about it.There are some very fine guide books on London but this is among the best that I have read.If you take a chapter you can generally walk the chapter in one to two hours and although some of the landmarks that he mentioned in the earlier editions have since gone, thank God the Salisbury is still there on St.Martin's Lane although sadly the Lyoon's Corner houses have quite disappeared as has the cafe where Yeats wrote his poem.In the fifties this cafe was owned by Cypriot and was a local working class restaurant known to LSE students at the nearby Pasfield Hall as the Greasy Spoon.The owner infuriated my American and Canadian friends by bringing water without ice(wanting ice on an English winter day seemed bizarre to we Brits)and smothering the apple pie with custard.After they had tasted English ice-cream at the time the gladly went back to the custard.