#book0logy

Books Based In London

The Capital holds a thousand stories, and a fair few of them have made it to print. Here’s a selection of my favourites I have read in all my years of loving London!

Neverwhere

Here’s Holly talking about Neverwhere again! There are very few books that evoke a sense of place like this book, and Gaiman roots his story so heavily in the city its impossible not to want to visit after finishing the book. When tube stations become characters, you know its a truly London based story.

Essays In Love

This is mainly for the one chapter that talks about London in the summer, and when I originally read it all I wanted to do was to travel to London and sit on Hampstead Heath and read. All the story is set with a year in London as the backdrop for a romance.

A Darker Shade Of Magic

Another fantasy call for London, in V E Schwab’s fictional universe there isn’t just one London, there’s four! The London of our world may be the least exciting of the four, but there is still a draw to the world of 18th Century London that captures me every time I read this book, which is a lot.

Nineteen Eighty-Four

So close to reality, yet so far, Orwell's London is a London at war. Orwell himself had witnessed the city in this state first hand and you can tell. He describes the mixture of ruined and ancient architecture and evokes the capital at a point of uncertainty. It’s interesting to see Orwell’s descriptions and then visit the City and see it for yourself.

Bridget Jones’ Diary 

My dream world of London, full of romance and cocktails and 90s single life. I like to imagine that around any corner could be Hugh Grant or Colin Firth in London and this book makes that a reality. I could never live in London as it  would ruin the illusion this book creates.

Special mentions:

Harry Potter, mainly for Diogan Alley and the Leaky Cauldron 

Sherlock Holmes, my heart still races every time I see Baker Street on the tube

Infernal Devices, Blackfriar’s Bridge will never be the same 

A Christmas Carol, ghosts and London are the perfect pair