Annotated Rivers of London

Hello! Peter is a Londoner by birth, and identifies very much as a Londoner, too, so on one level that could be where the ‘prince of the city’ comment comes from.

It’s also quite likely a reference to the film Prince of the City, which is about a NYPD officer and his partners; in this case the title is one they give themselves, and is a nod to the latitude they’re given to do their jobs (in this case in narcotics cases). This is not a million miles away from the scope Peter and Nightingale are given to operate, although our heroes are much more conscientious about how they use it; in the film, the characters are not so squeaky clean. Although the lead character eventually turns out to be somewhat of an idealist, and helps to bring an end to corrupt practices.

Hello all, bit of a long time since the last post - sorry about that! Here’s something new, though: a map!

It combines the book-specific marker sets created by Ben Aaronovitch, and an overlay of Stephen Walter’s lovely “Rivers of London” illustration which has been georeferenced to sit on top of Google maps.

You can use the toggle to adjust the transparency on the image and see where the rivers are relative to the road layout. And you can turn the marker layers off and on individually, too.

Thought it might be worth a “digest” of the chapters annotated to date...

Rivers of London (Midnight Riot)

Chapter 1: Material Witness

Chapter 2: Ghost-hunting Dog

Moon Over Soho

Chapter 1: Body and Soul

Chapter 2: The Spice of Life

Chapter 3: A Long Drink of the Blues

Chapter 4: One Tenth of My Ashes

Chapter 5: The Night Gate

I’ll try and remember to do a weekly post linking to any new chapters that get posted from now on.

‘Behold,’ said Nightingale, ‘the night gate.’

The chapter title, as far as I can tell, simply refers to the hidden entrance to Casterbrook which Nightingale introduces Peter to in this chapter. It was originally the workman’s entrance.

I pointed out that a definition like that was so broad as to essentially include any use of magic outside of that authorised by the Folly. Nightingale indicated that he regarded that as a feature, not a bug.

“It’s a feature, not a bug” is a bit of a programming reference, but is used fairly widely to describe annoyances/quirks that are intentionally that way - or may be an “unintended feature” (i.e. a mistake that nobody can quite work out to fix, and so gets left in).

In this case, Nightingale is almost certainly being serious - suggesting something about the Folly’s control issues with respect to magic and who gets access to it.

His late father had been a senior civil servant, and had sent the young Jason [Dunlop] to a second-tier independent school in Harrogate

In the UK, and “independent school” is not necessarily the same thing as a public (private) school; although it may be fee-paying, it could be grant-maintained via endowments. It just means that the school is financially & administratively independent from the local education authority (i.e. the state).

But I think in this instance, Jason’s school is described as “independent” rather than a public school simply to reinforce it’s second-tieredness. It’s quite likely that one’s status in the Little Crocodiles was related to the status of the school you’d gone to.

‘There’s more to life than just London,’ said Nightingale.

‘People keep saying that,’ I said. ‘But I’ve never actually seen any proof.’

This is the first instance of Nightingale & Peter’s running joke about Peter’s London-centric worldview...

Truth by told, as a motorway car the Jag isn’t that comfortable, but there was no way I was heading into Morse Central in the Ford Asbo

Inspector Morse, the fictional Oxford-based detective, famously drove a Jaguar Mark 2 himself in the televised adaptation (in the books he drove a Lancia).

‘There were volunteers right from the start of the war,’ said Nightingale. ‘The Virtuous Men, they called themselves - out of the University of Pennsylvania.’ Others had arrived in the years following Pearl Harbor, and Nightingale had always had the impression that there was some deep animosity at work between them and the Virtuous Men.

The University of Pennsylvania is one of, if not the oldest University in the US, and was founded by Benjamin Franklin - who had a bit of a thing for virtue. It seems possible that he could have been responsible in RoL-verse for establishing at least this chapter of American magic - he was a bit of a polymath not unlike Isaac Newton, although the men apparently never met.

As to the animosity with the “others”, it’s been postulated by fandom that this might date back to the civil war. But as yet there’s scant canon detail on foreign traditions and magical administrations so all of this is conjecture.

Nightingale claimed he’d have spotted them if they’d started practising in London. ‘They were hardly what you’d call subtle,’ he said.

A reference to the stereotypical reputation of Americans, particularly tourists, abroad.

When all the map was pink, I thought. When every boy expected his own adventure and girls had not yet been invented.

Peter reflects on just how different Nightingale’s (original) era was. The pink on the map refers to the British Empire - schools would have maps on the wall with all the colonies coloured pink. There was a magazine called “Boy’s Own” aimed at pre-teens and teenaged boys and depicting the sort of adventures that Nightingale has just described (the reference is still in colloquial use today). And it was definitely a man’s world - literally, in the case of Casterbrook and the Folly, of course.

Outside the big cities, my very appearance can sometimes be enough to render certain people speechless.

Peter’s comment touches on the heterogeniety of racial geography in the UK. While London and other major cites are ethnically very diverse, this is not the case everywhere. Of course, we see more of this in Foxglove Summer, in rural Herefordshire - but even Oxford (a city, and not 60 miles from Central London) is something of a different world.

‘Oh,’ said Postmartin in surprise. ‘Geoffrey Wheatcroft? Hardly what I’d call a nefarious fellow. Not your criminal type at all, is he, Thomas?’

Apart from the foreshadowy error of judgement with regards to Wheatcroft’s character, Geoffrey Wheatcroft is also the name of a real-life British journalist. This is apparently entirely unintentional on BA’s part. The name just fit the character...

‘Magdalen College?’ I asked.

‘Yes,’ said Nightingale suddenly thinking.

I got there first. ‘The same college as Jason Dunlop.’

And also two members of the current Conservative Cabinet (government Ministers), plus sundry other Tory MPs and Peers (members of the House of Lords). And a wealth of other influential people, past and present.

P.S. Magdalen is pronounced “maudlin”...

Postmartin suggested a spot of lunch at the Eagle and Child.

An old Oxford pub with literary connections (including C.S. Lewis, who went to Magdalen, and Morse author Colin Dexter).

‘I’m in charge of the great man’s papers, and the papers of all lesser beings that have stood on his shoulders since. Even Nightingale and you.’

Postmartin is referencing the Isaac Newton quote: “If I have seen further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”

‘I think perhaps he should have taken that step earlier,’ said Postmartin. ‘Once it was clear that reports of the death of magic had been greatly exaggerated.’

This time Postmartin is referencing the (more familiar misquote) of Mark Twain’s “The report of my death was an exaggeration".

‘I expected it to have been redeveloped,’ I said.

‘As what?’ asked Nightingale.

‘I don’t know. Country hotel and conference centre, health spa, celebrity rehab clinic?’

Rather a lot of big old houses (like Ambrose House) have indeed been repurposed in this way, as they tend to be prohibitively expensive to maintain as residences. Others get sold or part-sold to the National Trust.

‘...Unless you were Horace Greenway, who was unpopular with the prefects.’

In Britain (and, I believe, other Commonwealth countries) school prefects are normally older students who are put in a position of responsibility for/authority over others to help with basic discipline and order - similar to a hall monitor in the US. They may work under a Head Boy or Head Girl (Boy in this case) and often get to wear a shiny badge.

I brushed my fingertips on the wood, and instead felt the rough paper of the Beano and the Eagle.

Both old British comics marketed at children. However, the Eagle didn’t exist until 1950, and the Beano was first published in the late 30s, so neither would have been around when Casterbrook was active as a school. May be a continuity error. Or, Peter’s impression, through the vestigia, was presumably of old comics - his imagination supplied titles he’d heard of, although their association happens to be anachronistic... Let’s go with that :)

As we ascended, I caught a glimpse of rows of names carved into the far wall

Since Nightingale later mentions woodcarving (and the walls are described as “mostly painted brick”), it’s likely that the names are carved into one of the big wooden ‘honour roll’ boards that many schools and other institutions have.

We’d popped into Ryman before leaving Oxford

Ryman is a British stationery and office supplies chain.

‘They’re almost on Denham Street,’ said Nightingale, meaning local plod.

“Plod” is a slang term for uniformed police, and originates with the character of PC Plod in Enid Blyton’s Noddy books (who plodded along slowly).

There was a reason the Jaguar Mk II was the favoured getaway car for blaggers and the Flying Squad, and Nightingale’s Jag had definitely been modded for pursuit.

Meaning, it goes like shit off a shovel... The Mark II was indeed popular as a getaway car back in the 60s for its speed and acceleration coupled with roomy accommodation for up to 5 occupants. And of course, to keep up, the police had them too.

(via philomytha) Interesting bit of errata from this chapter:

The Radcliffe Science Library is housed inside a circular domed building that looks a bit like St Paul’s with the extraneous religious bits cut off.

This is the Radcliffe Camera (known as the Rad Cam) but it does not house the RSL, which was moved to its own more modern building behind the Natural History Museum many years ago.

“I wish to be cremated. One tenth of my ashes shall be given to my agent, as written in our contract.”

The Groucho Marx quote from whence cometh the chapter title. In this chapter, Peter starts off at the Groucho Club, a private members' club in Soho, which itself is named for another famous Groucho Marx quote ("I don’t want to belong to any club that would have me as a member"). So it's sort of a reference to a reference - very meta!

'You're thinking of St John Giles?' I asked.

'The M.O's pretty distinctive,' said Stephanopoulos.

St John Giles and the vagina dentata M.O. crop up towards the end of Rivers of London/Midnight Riot.

Last seen climbing the wooden steps to Bedfordshire.

Going "up the wooden hill to Bedfordshire" meaning to go upstairs to bed, Bedfordshire being one of the Home Counties (very "middle England") and so it has somewhat twee, middle class connotations (although that's more by use than design - Bedfordshire is just a playful way of extending "bed"). Stephanopoulos is clearly using it somewhat ironically, given that it's in relation to a grown man.

I caught the impression of port wine, treacle, the taste of suet and the smell of candles.

With whom did the vestigia originate? The victim or the perpetrator? Who else do we associate with suet and treacle and other relatively anachronistic foodstuffs? A relative of someone's? Or a public school upbringing?

'If he was attacked by magic it wasn't directly.'

'I wish you wouldn't call it that,' said Stephanopoulos. 'Couldn't we call it "by other means"?'

It's a bit of a running joke that Peter's mundane colleagues are uncomfortable with the word "magic". See also Seawoll and his "weird bollocks" (ahem). Previews of the comic (Body Work) show that Stephanopoulos has settled on "the M word" as a euphemism of choice.

Stephanopoulos gave me a strange look. 'You're a cheeky bugger, aren't you?' she said.

Not the last time Peter has been pulled up for his cheekiness (see Whispers Under Ground) and presumably not the first either. This is Peter, after all...

I lifted the lids on one of the [silver salvers] to reveal Cumberland sausages and poached eggs. [...] I steered clear of the Cumberland sausage, for some reason.

This may be coincidental, or else is A+ trolling by Molly.

This had led to a bizarre debate about the process of human digestion, which wasn't settled until I went out and bought some school biology textbooks and talked Nightingale through the stomach, the intestines, the small intestines and what they were for.

Pupil turns teacher (with the help of "the literature"..). One wonders exactly what Nightingale thought happened...

'Spells?' I asked. 'Are you saying you went to Hogwarts?'

While Nightingale has heard of Harry Potter as of RoL ("I'm not a fictional character!") he's not apparently well-versed in the books and this prompts Peter to elaborate.

'We did play our own version of squash,' he said, 'using the movement forms; that could get very lively.'

It isn't made explicit, but presumably this is what Peter and Lesley come to refer to as "Pocket Quidditch".

In his introduction to The Role of Magic in Inducing Pseudo-Lamarckian Inheritance, [Wolfe] argues that exposure to magic could induce changes in an organism which could then be inherited by its offspring.

This, and Peter's subsequent musings as to how that might relate to the genii locorum and other others, introduce a possible mechanism for magical inheritance (see also Zach Palmer's "born different", in WUG). However...

Amongst modern biologists, this sort of thing is known as 'soft inheritance' and, if espoused, causes them to point and laugh.

Peter acknowledges that this isn't particularly in keeping with modern understanding of (mundane) inheritance. That said, epigenetic variation (whereby environmental factors can influence the expression/functioning of existing genes, and these changes are passed to offspring) could be a mechanism. This might suggest that magic alters existing genes, rather than creating structural changes in DNA - which sort of reflects the idea of magic (the practice thereof) being learnable by anyone rather than innate. But this has yet to be followed up in canon..

'Are you a guy?' I asked, just to show the sensitivity training at Hendon hadn't been wasted.

He's being sarcastic, showing awareness that - as per the training he received on interacting with trans people - the question was not tactful. And he compounds this by ignoring the answer, misgendering them for the rest of the scene.

We found a cashpoint, and I pulled a ton and a half for walking-around money

For the non-Brits, a cashpoint is an ATM, "pulled" means withdrew , and "a ton" (in this context) is a colloquialism for one hundred of something. Ergo, Peter has withdrawn £150.

'As if I were poaching,' [Ash] said. 'On a beautiful moonlit night.'

I watched him pinch an apple off a market stand as he sauntered away.

This is a demonstration of the vegetarian form of poaching, known as "scrumping".

Also, likely to be a reference to the English folksong 'The Lincolnshire Poacher'. One version of the first verse: 

When I was bound apprentice in famous Lincolnshire, Full well I serv’d my master, for more than seven year, Till I took up to poaching, as you shall quickly hear. Oh, 'tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.

(thanks steamshovelmama!)

Scrumptious was not a word that I'd ever heard used by a real person before.

I can genuinely say the same. Contrary to the stereotype of the posh Brit, this is not a word in current usage by young people. Outside vintage faves such as the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and some Enid Blyton novels, it's hardly encountered in (modern) pop culture/fiction, either. Hint, hint...

I gave her some flannel about ongoing enquiries...

"Flannel" being Britglish for talking to mislead, being evasive. Synonym: to B.S..someone.

'I suppose I'm compensating rather for when I was younger - we were terribly short of all sorts of things back then.'

Simone is referring to rationing, which was introduced in Britain at several points during the last century at times when the country was 'in extremis', although Simone would have been affected by the rationing that started in 1939 (for World War II) and continued into the fifties for certain commodities.

'Most of my work goes overseas. To the Japs mainly, very keen on jazz, the Japs are.'

This is another clue as to Simone's real age, as "Jap" is considered politically incorrect (offensive) nowadays; her use of it would stand out as either racist or anachronistic, a weird affectation. Possibly both.

I saw a photograph which showed the street awash with men in pork pie hats and Burton suits

Burton is a men's high street fashion retailer, founded in 1903 and still going strong today. It's referred to, later in MOS, as the sort of place where most of the male DCs would get their suits (rather than buy designer, like Seawoll and the more senior officers). 

'I know what you're thinking,' she said. 'What's a nice desi girl like me doing in the jazz scene?' Actually I was thinking where the hell had she got that leather jacket from and should she, for religious reasons, be wearing a leather jacket in the first place?

Peter is assuming that Tista Ghosh, being of Indian origin, is a Hindu. While Hinduism considers cattle as sacred and vegetarianism is widely practiced, is isn't the case that all Hindus refuse to wear all types of leather (for example, if the animal has died of natural causes, their skin might be used) - so the answer to Peter's question is "it depends"!

Tista is using the term “desi” to identify as being from the Indian subcontinent/South Asia.

'Where the jazzman sups, there sup I,' said James.

This is a nod to Shakespeare, and the song in The Tempest: "Where the bee sucks, there suck I".

The mark was from glue that once held a folder into which a library card would have fitted back   in the day when dinosaurs roamed the earth and computers were the size of washing machines.

This is a bit of an exaggeration, as this system was still in use at least into the 80s. This is the sort of thing Peter is referring to.

There was silence at the other end. 'I need to speak to him right away.' I heard a clunk as the receiver was put down next to the phone. As I waited, I thought it was about time I bought Nightingale a proper phone.

“Aliens?” I had to ask. 

“Not yet.” 

The start of an ongoing joke - everybody wants to know whether they do aliens as well as magic. As of Foxglove Summer, the answer is still “not yet” (although Peter does have a werelight mistaken for a UFO in that book, the closest they’ve come...) 

“...actually, I’m not sure what blue-rinsed hair would look like…”

 Blue rinses used to be popular with older British women as they gave greying yellow-white hair a more blue-grey (and less obvious) appearance; one of the most well-known users was the Queen Mother, so Peter almost certainly has seen women with blue-rinsed hair (or photos of them), he just didn’t know what he was looking at. The term “blue-rinse brigade” can be used more generally to refer to older conservative women. 

“This far up the hill was a maze of narrow streets choked with BMWs and Chelsea Tractors.” 

“Chelsea Tractor” is a UK term for luxury 4WD/4x4 cars which aren’t really suited to the city; Chelsea is a very posh area of London (hence the attitude and appearance of Mama Thames’ daughter Chelsea.) 

“We were drinking bottles of Grolsch…” 

“Charing Cross nick” 

A “nick” is a police station. 

“[Covent Garden]…was once London’s principal fruit and veg market, but that got shifted south of the river ten years before I was born.” 

This happened in 1974, placing Peter’s birth in the mid-80s (as he later confirms in chapter 4.) 

WPC Lesley May 

Until 1999 female officers in the British police had W (for “woman”) prefixed to their rank. As this book is set in ~2010, Peter is being deliberately archaic in calling Lesley this; he only refers to her as a WPC once more in the series, and never any other female officer. 

“There was a badge pinned to his lapel: a pewter skeleton caught mid-caper.” 

The badge of the Skeleton Army, which Peter describes later in the book.

“You must have a touch of the sight,” said Nicholas. “Some of the old Palladino.” 

Eusapia Palladino was an Italian spiritualist who performed in England in the 1890s, although she was caught multiple times faking her seances.

“...staring at the poster of Estelle that I’d affixed to the wall opposite.” 

Estelle is a British singer/songwriter who voices the character of Garnet in Steven Universe. 

“There was aspirin in one of the cupboards” 

Notable only because this was changed from paracetamol (US Tylenol/acetaminophen) in the UK version of the book to aspirin in the US version, which is odd because aspirin is a different drug entirely...

“I was thinking of CID.” 

CID is the Criminal Investigation Department of the Met, i.e. plainclothes officers; Peter is saying he doesn’t want to remain a uniformed officer like Inspector Neblett. 

“...my limitations started at moving to Peckham and hanging around with yardies, postcode wannabes and those weird skinny white kids who don’t get the irony in Eminem.” 

Peckham is a famously deprived area of South London with a large (> 50%) black and mixed-race population; it was the site of rioting during the 2011 London riots. “Yardies” are black gang members.

“I have three C-grade A-levels in Maths, Physics, and Chemistry...”

A-levels are the school leaving qualifications sat during the last two years of secondary/high school in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland; most people take three or four, and a minimum of one is required for university entrance (although specific courses and universities can require four, and there is no set limit on the number you can take.) Taking Maths, Physics, and Chemistry would fulfill the entrance requirements for most architecture degrees at British universities (which we learn later was Peter’s goal.) 

“In addition to her mum, her dad and nan, Lesley had five older sisters, all still resident within a hundred meters of the family home in Brightlingsea.” 

Brightlingsea is on the coast of Essex at the mouth of the River Colne, about two hours’ drive from central London; the area it’s in is considerably less ethnically diverse and more conservative than London. Lesley’s a smalltown girl. 

“Maintain the Queen’s Peace” 

The Queen’s (or King’s) Peace is a concept in British and Commonwealth law which refers to the peace the monarch is supposed to keep within the kingdom; see also Justices of the Peace, or crimes which cause a “breach of the peace”. It’s also the peace which Peter, as a policeman, has taken an oath to help keep. 

“[Lesley] sat down on the step of the Waterstone’s bookshop to catch her breath.” 

A small piece of trivia: Ben Aaronovitch was working at a Waterstone’s when he started writing these books.

“Your ghost,” [Lesley] said. “Nicholas Nickleby.” 

Nicholas Wallpenny is the ghost; Nicholas Nickleby is a lesser-known novel by Charles Dickens. 

“Chips,” said Lesley…”Or a kebab.” 

What Lesley is suggesting here is either fish-and-chip style chips (the closest American equivalent is probably steak fries) or doner kebab; see the annotations for MoS Ch 1 for a longer explanation of kebab. It’s a classic late-night, post-drinking meal.  

“…and avoid the kind of cock-up that made the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper such an exemplary operation.” 

The Yorkshire Ripper, Peter Sutcliffe, was a serial killer who was convicted of murdering thirteen women and attempting to murder seven others over a five-year period in the late 1970s. He was caught after being arrested for an unrelated crime and confessing to the murders. The police famously interviewed him nine times but never connected him to the murders before his confession, largely due to the volume of paperwork on the case and its poor filing. 

“the Metropolitan Police likes to keep its personnel tied to fixed terminals – which can’t be left in trains or sold to pawnshops.” 

There have been a number of incidents over the past decade in the UK involving sensitive data on portable storage devices (like memory sticks and laptops) which were lost or stolen in public places; the most notorious involved top secret intelligence files (the paper sort) being left on a commuter train. 

“...don’t ask me why I know what an Edwardian smoking jacket looks like; let’s just say it has something to do with Doctor Who and leave it at that.” 

The Third Doctor wore a red velvet smoking jacket.

“I am going to bed early with a cocoa and a copy of Blackstone’s Police Investigator’s Workbook.” 

This is the textbook for British police exams; Lesley is being her diligent and goal-oriented self. “Cocoa”, in this context, means hot chocolate. 

“…or if he didn’t believe me, meant he thought I was cruising…”

This is another change between the UK and US versions; the original sentence says “cottaging” rather than “cruising”. In British English cottaging refers more specifically to gay men looking for anonymous sexual partners in public. 

“I only got as far as the Argos on Camden Town High Street” 

Argos is a catalogue store in the UK and Ireland. 

“I probably didn’t even have enough money to get me farther than Potters Bar…” 

Peter is discussing the second time he ran away (or tried to run away) as a child. Potters Bar is a town in Hertfordshire just outside the M25 motorway which forms a ring around the greater London area; he’s effectively saying that even if he had run away, he could barely have got out of London. 

 "Maybe he likes to speak very softly," said Lesley

A Long Drink of the Blues is a 1957 studio jazz album by saxophonist Jackie McLean. The title track is, appropriately, rather long.

A Long Drink of the Blues, Jackie McLean Sextet.   

The pianist, Daniel Hossack, was a classically trained music teacher at Westminster School for the terminally privileged.

Westminster School is a private secondary school (or public school, as we Brits tend to call them) and, with fees around £24k a year, the pupils are indeed on the privileged side. Rather a lot of famous alumni (including a fancast-favourite, incedentally...) Boys only except for sixth-form (Years 12 and 13, A Level study) which is co-educational. 

James Lochrane [...] taught seventeenth-century French history at Queen Mary's College

Queen Mary's is part of the University of London.

On Friday night in Soho, going across the river [to get the drinks] might have been quicker

This is not an exaggeration; the whole of Soho is packed after work on a Friday. To get to the bar, you first have to penetrate the pub itself through the crowd outside on the streets. Think mosh pit at a rock concert and you're basically there. This interferes with pedestrian - and vehicular - traffic in the streets around Soho, which is alluded to elsewhere in MOS during action sequences. It also means that Peter has an audience for the same.

We ended up in Wong Kei on Wardour Street, where the food is reliable, the service is brusque...

Wong Kei was notorious as the "rudest restaurant in London", and people would go there for the entertainment value of being shouted at to "go upstairs!" or "Sit with them!" by the surly waiting staff. They've had a bit of a revamp recently, though.

A pair of pale American students, who up til then had had the table to themselves, visibly cowered as we plonked ourselves down.

[...]

'Hi,' one of them said. 'We're from Kansas.'

Possibly a reference to The Wizard of Oz, inferring being something of a fish out of water (the students are clearly uncomfortable) i.e. "you're not in Kansas anymore..."

Both American students were wearing neat red Adidas sweatshirts with MNU PIONEERS embroidered across the chest.

[...]

'What's an MNU anyway?' asked Max.

MNU stands for "Mid-Nazarene University" which is a Christian liberal-arts college in (you guessed it!) Kansas. Although it is also the acronym for the evil military company in District 9.

I caught Daniel pinging his radar at a couple of tasty young men checking themselves out outside the Admiral Duncan

A well-known gay pub in Soho. The site of one of the racism- and homophobia- driven nail bomb attacks in 1999. Of relevance (from the Wikipedia article): " the Metropolitan Police Assistant Commissioner [who] undertook to maintain a crime scene van outside the pub to take witness statements and gather evidence until the perpetrator was found; the van would be staffed entirely with openly gay and lesbian police officers. This was a turning point for the often tempestuous relationship between the LGBT community and the Metropolitan Police."

There’s always been a po-faced seriousness about the British jazz scene, and a kind of chin-stroking ‘yes, I see’ roll-neck jumperness to the fans

If you want to get an idea of how this manifests, have a look at this historical document sketch from the Fast Show. Nice....

...even my dad admitted that a man who could solo on a slide trombone had to be something special. Then he’d talk about Kai Winding, or J.J. Johnson.

Not a particularly important reference, but here they both are duetting on a version of Cole Porter’s “It’s Alright With Me”, and it’s a joy so I thought why not.

I had a horrible feeling I’d turned up two coupons short of the popup toaster

A variant euphemism for being a bit of an idiot/missing a trick (see also: couple of cans short of a six-pack, etc). This specific version used by Victor Lewis-Smith to describe fellow columnist Lord Rees-Mogg. And a favourite of Peter’s...

‘He’s the jazz police,’ said Max, meaning me, I suppose. ‘We’re more like the Old Compton Street Irregulars.’

Where the [Charing Cross] Road and the [Shaftesbury] Avenue crossed became Cambridge Circus, and on the west side today stands the Palace Theatre, in all its late-Victorian gingerbread glory. Next to that, and built in the same style, stands what was once the George and Dragon Public House, but was now named The Spice of Life. According to its own publicity, it was London’s premier spot for jazz

The Spice of Life, where Cyrus popped his clogs, is a real venue in Soho. Here it is on Google maps, if you’re interested...

The Spice of Life is also the name of an album by Marlena Shaw, from 1969.

Marlena Shaw - The Spice of Life (1969).

If he was still wearing bandages on his shoulder, they were hidden under a crisp lilac shirt that had last been fashionable during the Abdication Crisis.

This refers to Edward VIII’s abdication in 1936 in order to marry Wallis Simpson, which caused a bit of a tizzy (or a constitutional crisis, if you prefer). Edward VIII was a bit of a fashion trendsetter, so it’s quite probable that Nightingale and his contemporaries would have be influenced by the Prince of Wales himself. Here are the sorts of things men wore in the 1930s...

The sons of Musa ibn Shakir were bright and bold...

There’s a fair amount of explanation about the Banū Mūsā brothers in-text, but you can read more about them and their impressive contributions to maths and science on Wikipedia, and at the Islamic Encyclopedia, too.

I grew up in Kentish Town, which as an area would count as a leafy suburb if it was leafier and more suburban. And if it had fewer council estates. One such is the Peckwater Estate, my ancestral seat, which had been built just as architects were coming to terms with the idea that proles might enjoy indoor plumbing and the occasional bath

The Peckwater Estate in NW5 was built in the 1950s, which was something of a boom period for the building of social housing - a lot of the “preparation” and demolition to clear space having occurred during the bombing of London in WWII. Wikipedia provides some interesting historical and social context for council housing if you’re interested.

For links to the versions of “Body and Soul” played by Peter and his dad, see Chapter 1...

‘Ken Johnson,’ said Dad. ‘Old Snakehips himself.’

Ken “Snakehips” Johnson was a dancer as well as a jazz band leader - this is him in action, showing where he earned his nickname :)

He was born in British Guiana, and attended secondary school and university in the UK. Here’s an article about his contribution (and that of other Caribbean artists) to British Jazz and Swing in the 1930s and 1940s. He did indeed die at the Cafe de Paris, aged only 26 (about as old as Peter, incidentally) - one of over 30 people killed. His band weren’t, however, playing “Body and Soul” when the bombs hit - it’s likely to have been “Oh Johnny, Oh Johnny, Oh!”

The TV was off, and my mum hadn’t spoken to anyone on the phone for over three hours - it was beginning to get a little bit Fringe.

The prospect of Peter’s mum neglecting to pick up the phone for this long is clearly so unnerving as to have Peter worried they’re in an episode of a science fiction show. Fringe is described as “a hybrid of The X-Files, Altered States, and The Twilight Zone.”

I get to run in a broadband cable, and at last there is a corner of the Folly that is for ever in the twenty-first century

Like many of the chapter titles in MOS, this one refers to a jazz standard - and is perhaps the most important given that it’s the tune that Peter keeps encountering as part of the vestigia on the bodies that turn up.

In this chapter, he hears it for the first time, on the body of Cyrus Wilkinson (having been alerted to it by Dr Walid).

‘It’s “Body and Soul”,’ I said. ‘It’s from the 1930s.’

'Who played it?’

'Just about everybody. It’s one of the great jazz classics.’

There’s actually quite a bit of discussion of the different versions of the song in Chapter 2, but I’ll put the references here to keep things consistent.

Coleman Hawkins (1939)

Benny Goodman Trio with Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa (1935)

Billie Holiday (1940)

 The actual version Peter hears is supposed to be by Ken “Snakehips” Johnson (more on him later), but there isn’t an available reference of his take - if he did, in fact, record one.

Inside, the mortuary was much the same as the rest of the hospital, only with fewer people complaining about the state of the NHS

This is quite a neat characterisation of the Great British public; the NHS (like the weather) is something we devote quite a bit of energy to complaining about. But this belies how strongly people believe in the NHS as a Force for Good. We may moan about it, but we’re fiercely proud of it pretty protective of it, too.

The furniture looked like John Lewis - expensive, comfortable and unimaginative.

For the non-Brits, John Lewis is a chain of English department stores. Although they’re famous for their motto “Never Knowingly Undersold” (meaning they promise to match their competitors' prices), the range of products they stock tends towards the higher end. Conservative with a small c - or IKEA for the middle classes, if you prefer. They do good free extended guarantees on TVs and electricals, though.

Once they start to think about the consequences they almost always calm down - unless they’re drunk of course, or stoned, or aged between fourteen and twenty-one, or Glaswegian

Glaswegians have a reputation for being belligerent/up for a fight. Cf the “Glasgow Kiss”, which is not something you would want to be on the receiving end of.

Sometimes, after a hard day of graft, nothing will satisfy like a kebab…

This came up in discussion before - in the UK, a kebab is what is also referred as a doner kebab (pronounced “donna” or “donor”, variously). It’s the Turkish version of what Arabs call Shawarma, and Greeks Gyro, and consists of meat (normally lamb) shaved off an “elephant’s leg” in a pita or other flatbread - normally accompanied by salad and sauce. Tends to be difficult impossible to eat without getting everywhere, hence Nightingale’s “no kebab in the Jag” rule.

The city was clinging to summer like a WAG to a promising centre forward

A “WAG” is the football (soccer for the USAians) equivalent of a groupie. Is technically an acronym for “wives and girlfriends” but is used as a noun and pronounced “wag”, as in what Toby’s tail does when there’s the prospect of food.

Thus we pass amongst the other coppers in a mysterious way, our duties to perform

Hello! This blog is dedicated to collecting and providing context for references within the Rivers of London series of books by Ben Aaronovitch - inspired by the Annotated Pratchett File. Given that it’s pretty hard to navigate RoL canon without tripping over references to popular culture, history, literature, architecture, music, policing and the myriad joys and trials of being part of British society, there should be plenty of material...

Each book has been set up with its very own page:

Rivers of London (Midnight Riot)

Moon Over Soho

Whispers Under Ground

Broken Homes

Foxglove Summer

Each page lists the book’s chapters. Eventually, there’ll be a post for each chapter, linked from the book pages - these posts can be edited/added to as necessary.

But now, it’s looking a bit bare... Perhaps we should do something about that?

Where you come in:

Adopt a chapter! If there isn’t a link, why not start a post for that chapter? You can submit it here. For consistency, if you could use the chapter number and title as the post title, and put the relevant book in the tags, that would be grand.

Suggest amendments/additions to existing chapters - this can be done via the submissions or the asks.

The plan is for tags in the post to include topic areas so that it will be possible to look at all instances of (for example) police jargon, or British vernacular, if you were so inclined. To do this there’s the search function, and eventually there’ll be a list of tags somewhere on the blog.