Christopher Winn

London is an intense city. It feels vast and packed with people, the modern architecture punches the skyline with the grey steels and glass structures. The shops are full of glitz and glamour. Some locations ooze money, others areas seem run-down, but every part of this great city is layered with history. In this charming little book, Christopher Winn wants to take you on seven walks around parts of the city to reveal the huge influence that the Victorian age had on the city and to show you the vast amount of it still left.

Each of the seven walks has a map and clear directions with around 20 or so notable examples of Victorian architecture. The places to find on the walks vary from marble urinals, palaces, terraced houses, pump stations, stations and churches. There are loads of details in here to add extra to the buildings that you are being taken around, including who built them, when they were built, historical details and snippets.

All the way through the book, accompanying the text, are the delightful drawings by Mai Osawa. These drawings are of the buildings and details from them, like gargoyles and occasionally some of the interiors. The prose is straightforward and pragmatic, the main intention of the book is to inform you of buildings that you will see on your walk and fill in the gaps in the history of the areas. More importantly, there is a helpful list of pubs provided at the end of each walk to enable you to slake your thirst and recover from your perambulation. Great little book on the London that a lot of people see every day but will be utterly unaware of.… (meer)

As the song says - "There'll always be an England, While there's a country lane, Wherever there's a cottage small, Beside a field of grain." How I would love to travel these country lanes with this little book tucked under my arm. Who could possibly know all this about England and the English, apart from Christopher Winn! This book is a delightful potpourri of sorts that are - the oldest, the longest surviving, the only known, the first of, the most valuable or the biggest in either Britain and even occasionally the World. I thoroughly enjoyed reading my way through this alphabetical of England's counties, discovering the source of much that is hearsay, folklore and legend. I discovered the origin of many of today's sayings and read about an untold number of historic sites. I knew England was old, however, I was astonished to find so many buildings, pubs, churches, inventions and relics surviving today that are - still in use, have been in continuous use, are still owned by the same family or amazingly, just still standing, some, since before the Roman Times. It's an easy book to pick up and put down although I enjoyed reading it slowly, straight through. I shall be looking out for other, similar titles by the same author.… (meer)