Read this book and London will never look the same again

With a darkly evocative sense of place and period, this is a shocking and often poignant history of human nature’s most violent impulses, and the vibrant city that forms their backdrop

A fascinating, sideways view of London’s real underground

An insightful and multi-layered depiction of crime in London

A work of great skill and sympathy

Written with flair and plentifully illustrated

A gruesome and gripping study

Wise handles her sources with delicacy and rigour... she can take credit for the lease smug and self-congratulatory book ever written on 19th century slum life

This is a terrific piece of social history

Wise has brilliantly reconstructed the social histories of the period...The Italian Boy is a lip-smacking, gruesome joy from beginning to end

Wise has brilliantly combined a scalp-tingler with a scholarly account...It is exceptionally well organised, rich in data and hard to put down

Anyone intrigued by this tumultuous city will devour London Under in a few transporting hours... packed with revelations... Ackroyd's stylistic brilliance explains why the book remains a rattling good read

Fascinating study of everything under London, from rats and eels to monsters and ghosts.

As London's anatomist-in-chief, Peter Ackroyd turns his focus on what lies beneath the capital's surface. Peppered with erudite and literary references, Ackroyd's fluent style makes for entertaining reading

Packed with anecdotes and fascinating trivia...Ackroyd never misses an opportunity to link this hidden realm with the underworlds of mythology

Reveals the London beneath your feet in all its fascinating – and sometimes horrifying – glory. Historian and novelist Ackroyd invests his tales of buried rivers and catacombs with enormous energy