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Writers & Readers Documentary Comic Book #17
London for Beginners
Traces the history of London from its Roman origins to the present and examines its past problems with pollution
- GenresNonfiction
Paperback
Published January 1, 1985
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 8, 2020
I am an unabashed anglophile. My great-grandmother was an immigrant from London and my 23andMe DNA profile showed that my heritage is nearly 100% English (yes!!) with just a smidgen of Scandinavian thrown in (obviously a Viking on shore leave). As a kid, while my friends were pretending to be John Wayne or Johnny Weissmuller, I was always Paul McCartney. Long story short, I have a bone for all things British.
Why am I telling you this? ‘Because I want you to understand the height of my anticipation and the depth of my disappointment...
London for Beginners is a political history that centers around London; any physical or nonpolitical narrative of the city is purely incidental. If you don't already have a rudimentary grasp of London's topography and geography you are going to be absolutely lost. For example: there are bits about brothels in Sudwerke and "notorious landlords" in Rachman and some "eyesore" called Centrepoint ~ all of which I had to Google to have an inkling of what was being talked about.
I did, rather grudgingly, learn a few things about the characters and collaborators of London’s storied political past. I was introduced to the likes of Herbert Morrison and Ken Livingstone and something called "Tories” (as near as I could tell, Tories are not dissimilar to H.G. Wells' "Morlocks" as they seem to dwell in the catacombs and feed on the flesh of the gullible and under-educated).
Had this been titled "London Politics for Beginners" or "The Rise and Fall of the Greater London Council" I would have gladly given it four or five stars, but there is just too little here about the city to justify more than three.
Why am I telling you this? ‘Because I want you to understand the height of my anticipation and the depth of my disappointment...
London for Beginners is a political history that centers around London; any physical or nonpolitical narrative of the city is purely incidental. If you don't already have a rudimentary grasp of London's topography and geography you are going to be absolutely lost. For example: there are bits about brothels in Sudwerke and "notorious landlords" in Rachman and some "eyesore" called Centrepoint ~ all of which I had to Google to have an inkling of what was being talked about.
I did, rather grudgingly, learn a few things about the characters and collaborators of London’s storied political past. I was introduced to the likes of Herbert Morrison and Ken Livingstone and something called "Tories” (as near as I could tell, Tories are not dissimilar to H.G. Wells' "Morlocks" as they seem to dwell in the catacombs and feed on the flesh of the gullible and under-educated).
Had this been titled "London Politics for Beginners" or "The Rise and Fall of the Greater London Council" I would have gladly given it four or five stars, but there is just too little here about the city to justify more than three.
January 6, 2015
i love the graphic non-fiction educational genre, and london's history is as good a subject as any. but while i share some of the author's views (e.g. the thatcher government was a disaster for metropolitan municipal government), this is just too one-sided an account. ken livingstone was a messiah? all of london's ills stem from financial interests and the conservative party? the story is more interesting than that. nita clarke worked for the GLC and clearly felt very attached to it. for me the most interesting material was on its victorian forerunners, the relative anarchy surrounding london's great growth spurt.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews