Author:Gillian Tindall
Just across the River Thames from St Paul’s Cathedral stands an old and elegant house. Over the course of almost 450 years the dwelling on this site has witnessed many changes. From its windows, people have watched the ferrymen carry Londoners to and from Shakespeare’s Globe; they have gazed on the Great Fire; they have seen the countrified lanes of London’s marshy south bank give way to a network of wharves, workshops and tenements – and then seen these, too, become dust and empty air.
Rich with anecdote and colour, this fascinating book breathes life into the forgotten inhabitants of the house – the prosperous traders; an early film star; even some of London’s numberless poor. In so doing it makes them stand for legions of others and for a whole world that we have lost through hundreds of years of London’s history.
Mesmeric... This book is not just for London enthusiasts. Tindall has demonstrated a genius for a certain kind of social history that, in shining a light on one small place, illuminated a huge amount around... A rare instance of a history book that, in its optimism about the indomitable spirit of the place, raises the hairs on the back of your neck.
—— Sinclair McKay , Sunday TelegraphFascinating... Gillian Tindall brilliantly deploys contemporary observations to bring the centuries alive.
—— Christopher Howse , TabletDelightful... Tindall's story is truthful and unexaggerated, combining elegantly elegiac prose with imaginative empathy and descriptive power.
—— Jessica Mann , Literary ReviewBrilliantly gripping narrative...a true-life tale that would make John le Carre and Frederick Forsyth go weak at the knees
—— East Anglian Daily TimesCowell narrates his gripping story in painstaking detail, and with the common sense and professionalism of the distinguished journalist
—— Simon Sebag Montefiore , ScotsmanDeGroot goes far beyond his precise academic remit in bringing us this caustic, absorbing and suttee exploration of how and why the dream died
—— Euan Ferguson , ObserverDeGroot has a good ear for anecdotes and his narrative is highly amusing.
—— John Michell , SpectatorAn enjoyably written argument
—— Sinclair McKay , Daily TelegraphA gripping account
—— Adam Forrest , The HeraldDeGroot tells the story of the American lunar mission with verve and elegance
—— Richard Aldous , Irish TimesFascinating, gossipy and occasionally hilarious
—— Jeffrey Taylor , Express
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