Over the centuries, many of the world’s most celebrated writers have chronicled the life and times of the world’s first great metropolis – that remarkable city we call London.
From the Roman historian, Tacitus, to the diarist Samuel Pepys, to Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, these luminaries of the literary world have all, in their own unique way, contributed to the vast canon of London description we now have at our disposal.
But perhaps it was Samuel Johnson who most effectively distilled the unique and almost unquantifiable essence of the city when, in 1777, he wrote: “You find no man at all intellectual who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
And London has, indeed, seen and done it all.
It has been the focus of attack by everyone from the Vikings and William the Conqueror to Adolf Hitler and the IRA.
It was the nucleus of the Great British Empire, but for many years failed miserably to protect its poorest citizens from hunger, neglect and the horrors of child labour.
London is, in short, a teeming, intoxicating mass of contradictions – and for this reason, love the city or loathe it, one cannot help but admire it.
In this Short History of London Sinead Fitzgibbon comprehensively chronicles the eclectic evolution of the city, from the arrival of the Romans circa AD50 and the rise and fall of the Anglo-Saxons, to the profoundly destabilising era of Henry VIII, right through to development of the modern metropolis we know today.
‘An intriguing read; at once concise and brimming with fascinating detail.’ – Richard Foreman, author of the best-selling ‘Swords of Rome’ series.
Sinead Fitzgibbon is an author and critic. Several of her titles have been published as part of the bestselling 'History In An Hour' series. She also regularly writes reviews for a host of newspapers, magazines, websites, and journals.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
From the Roman historian, Tacitus, to the diarist Samuel Pepys, to Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens and Arthur Conan Doyle, these luminaries of the literary world have all, in their own unique way, contributed to the vast canon of London description we now have at our disposal.
But perhaps it was Samuel Johnson who most effectively distilled the unique and almost unquantifiable essence of the city when, in 1777, he wrote: “You find no man at all intellectual who is willing to leave London. No, Sir, when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford.”
And London has, indeed, seen and done it all.
It has been the focus of attack by everyone from the Vikings and William the Conqueror to Adolf Hitler and the IRA.
It was the nucleus of the Great British Empire, but for many years failed miserably to protect its poorest citizens from hunger, neglect and the horrors of child labour.
London is, in short, a teeming, intoxicating mass of contradictions – and for this reason, love the city or loathe it, one cannot help but admire it.
In this Short History of London Sinead Fitzgibbon comprehensively chronicles the eclectic evolution of the city, from the arrival of the Romans circa AD50 and the rise and fall of the Anglo-Saxons, to the profoundly destabilising era of Henry VIII, right through to development of the modern metropolis we know today.
‘An intriguing read; at once concise and brimming with fascinating detail.’ – Richard Foreman, author of the best-selling ‘Swords of Rome’ series.
Sinead Fitzgibbon is an author and critic. Several of her titles have been published as part of the bestselling 'History In An Hour' series. She also regularly writes reviews for a host of newspapers, magazines, websites, and journals.
Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.
