London (Universal History) [Hardcover]

A Wilson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 11, 2004 | Series: Universal History

The structure of the book is chronological, with digressions. From Roman and then Norman London, we move on to Chaucer's London - the city of the Peasants Revolt, Dick Whittington and the great Livery Companies. In Tudor and Stuart London many believed the city was being wrecked by over-population, over-building and the greed of speculators. Eighteenth-century London witnessed the South Sea Bubble, gin, highwaymen and the Gordon riots; but also banking, hospitals, and the elegant design of everyday things. In the nineteenth century, expanding vigorously, the city resisted any overall make-over. With Queen Victoria came the Railway Age, which made and unmade the city. Chartism, anti-semitism, overcrowding and cholera. But engineering triumphs too. If the First World War was a nightmare happening elsewhere, the amazing six years of 1939-45 were the city's finest hour. Post-1945, property developers took over, with disastrous results. The author celebrates the cosmopolitan city that mobility and immigration have created, while deploring the moronization' of the city, exemplified by the Millennium Dome and Ken Livingstone's 2002 London Plan.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"What shines through is Wilson's love for the city and his anguish at what he sees as the missed opportunity of the post-war period." -- KATHRYN HUGHES MAIL ON SUNDAY "Wilson talks with passion and authority about architecture's effect on the populace." INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY "Fresh from his imperious single volume on the Victorians, he is at his best on the riches and privation that the Industrial Revolution scattered among Londoners." -- TIM ADAMS OBSERVER "AN Wilson has made much of the familiar history of our capital city seem new. Very much a Londoner's book, each chapter is full of anecdote and opinion - something that readers of Wilson's Evening Standard column will know he doesn't lack." -- ROBERT GYN PALMER THE RESIDENT "Wilson evokes a strong sense of place and his astute commentary links the past with the present...This is a history of London even for people who don't readily venture into history or London." THE HERALD "tantalisingly excellent little book." -- Gerald Isaaman CAMDEN NEW JOURNAL "A.N. Wilson's contribution is genuinely a short history, with the main text falling just shy of 150 pages, showing his customary lucidity and zest." TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT "One can hear AN Wilson's voice..." THE TABLET "as clearly ordered as any pocket A-Z" THE LITERARY REVIEW "It's manageable, fascinating and impressively wide-ranging for its size and doesn't skimp on anecdote." LIVING HISTORY "the 18th and 19th centuries - these chapters are much the best in the book." SUNDAY TIMES "A fresh and persuasive perspective" CATHOLIC HERALD "engaging... As each era superimposes itself on the ones before, he conjures up the vanished human history, hidden like the rivers flowing beneath, that is so much part of London's atmosphere." -- GILES NEWINGTON IRISH TIMES

About the Author

A.N. Wilson was born in 1950. He was Literary Editor of the SPECTATOR 1981-83 and the EVENING STANDARD 1990-97. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, he is the author of more than a dozen novels and several biographies, and reviews for a wide range of newspapers and magazines.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 166 pages
• Publisher: Weidenfeld & Nicolson (March 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0297607154
• ISBN-13: 978-0297607151
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.1 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,125,263 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Two thousand years in 150 pages!, May 12, 2008

By 

Paul Weiss (Dundas, Ontario Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: London (Universal History) (Hardcover)

If the biography of a city whose history spans two thousand years is compressed to the short written span of only 150 pages, it is of necessity less than comprehensive. Like the late evening news, whose information is a compilation of sound bytes and 30 second highlights summarizing the day's events from around the world, AN Wilson's "London" is entertaining and briefly hits only the highest of the high spots. If a reader limits his expectations to information content at that limited level, then any potential disappointment will dissipate like the mists of an early morning fog on the Thames. Instead the reader will be treated to a very entertaining and informative read that adequately traces the evolution of London from an outlying Roman settlement to a multi-ethnic cosmopolis whose economy is built upon the twin pillars of tourism and world finance.

"London is now a town much more like New York than it is like Rome or Paris. It does not have a particularly national identity. The big City institutions are largely staffed, funded and run, as well as owned, by hugely powerful non-British companies, American, German and Japanese. The economy depends upon non-British holidaymakers coming in huge numbers to be fed and tended by, on the whole, non-British restaurateurs, hoteliers, entertainers ... " and the like.

I found it particularly interesting that Wilson, like Bill Bryson in his "Notes from a Small Island", makes much of the abysmal state of post World War II architecture and the generally appalling lack of leadership and centralized urban planning in the growth of the city of London. But whatever criticisms Wilson might level at London are also tempered by his obvious love for the city and his optimism that "in spite of all the mistakes made by its administrators, it will meet the challenges of the future".

As one of those millions of visiting tourists, I purchased "London: A Short History" as a souvenir with the intent of learning a little bit more about the city that was gracious enough to give me such an enjoyable vacation. It filled the bill perfectly. The few brief pages, for example, that talked about Churchill's leadership and the city's unflappable courage during the London Blitzkrieg were a wonderful, moving summary of the city's finest hour.

Highly recommended.

Paul Weiss