Customer Reviews

Without the City Wall: An Adventure in London Street Names North of the River (London Library Series)

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When I got this book via a swapping site, it had a small handwritten note inside. The previous owner had noted that this was a book that was easy to pick up and just as easy to put down. It was the kind of book to be kept in the kitchen to be read while waiting for a pot to boil! These comments capture my feelings towards the book rather well. The authors take the reader on a tour of the seventeen London boroughs that are outside the "City". The tours, one borough per chapter, are related partially as a first person narrative of their travels and partly as very brief bits of history. Brief in that the longest items might be a couple of paragraphs while most are one or two sentences. As a result the reader comes across a constant stream of facts and after a small amount of time feels as if he is drowning in minutia. Cautiously recommended as a curiosity, but not recommended for any serious study or long term reading pleasure.