Events of the past few weeks have cemented London’s
reputation as one of the greatest cities on earth but our first-class
hospitality, multi-million pound fireworks and Olympic medal collection
shouldn’t overshadow the many hundreds of years of history and people that has
seen our capital city reign supreme among its global counterparts since Boudicca
sacked it in AD 60.
This isn’t the author’s dissertation-length creation, but a
collection of completely original texts, including letters, diary entries and
poems, written by real people who lived through these historical events. For this reason the language is, understandably, archaic and
makes for a laborious read in places.
The entire first half of the book, from Boudicca up to the
1800’s feels particularly slow given the fashion for comprehensive
record-keeping (there’s more than one painfully comprehensive list of household
items) and the fact that Roman, Tudor and Shakespearean London are well-visited
periods in history and while these original texts offer a more personal angle
to events, they reveal nothing new that wouldn’t have been covered in history
class.
Our more recent history is brought alive however with
expertly selected entries from infamous historical figures documenting
life-altering events. A 19 year old Queen Victoria walks us through her own
coronation, The Sex Pistols tell of their first ever gig in 1975 and
eye-witness accounts of Princess Diana’s funeral procession and the 7/7
bombings remind us of the darker side of London’s history.
More of a research text, masquerading as a novel, that
should be dipped into at whatever historical period takes your fancy.
No comments:
Post a Comment