Jon E. Lewis, 'London: The Autobiography,' published by Constable, London, 2008.
London: The Autobiography is a 423 page hardcover measuring 9 1/2" x 6 1/4". The dust jacket has no flaws. Inside, the book is in mint condition, with clean unmarked pages and tight binding. The condition is near-fine.
London speaks for itself: from Boudicca's savage raid on Roman London in AD 60 to the terrorist bombings of 7/7, London: The Autobiography tells the story of 2,000 years of one of the world's greatest cities, in the words of those who were there.
Cradle of democracy, epicentre of the world's greatest empire, financial hub of the globe, for a long time the most teeming city on the planet, frontline against Hitler's Luftwaffe, the birthplace of punk--London is arguably the most influential and the most extraordinary city in the western world.
Here are all the great events of the last 2,000 years: the invasions by the Vikings, the Black death, Shakespeare's plays at the Globe, the Great Fire, Wren rebuilding St. Paul's, Jack the Ripper, the Battle of Cable Street, the Blitz, the Brixton Riots. Woven through these accounts is the everyday life of the city, with tales of medieval fraudsters, the site of a whale in the Thames, cockfighting, Victorian sewer-hunters, gangland slayings by the Krays, the coming of the yuppies. It includes contributions from Tacitus, Samuel Pepys, Dr Johnson, Fyodor Dostoyevsy, Karl Marx, Virginia Woolfe, George Orwell and many others.
Packed with personality and character, this is a unique history of Britain's ancient capital, fascinating to both residents and visitors.
ISBN: 978-1-84529-875-3
