Before the Romans crossed the Thames in AD 43 London was barely a cluster of mud huts.
With a bridge and a radiating network of roads, the Romans began creating Londinium. It grew and developed and spread.
From then on the city took on many forms.
The Anglo-Saxon Lundeneric
The London Town of Mayor Walworth and Wat Tyler
Dunbar’s ‘flower of cities all’
Spenser’s ‘most kindly nurse’.
To Dr Johnson, London had ‘all that life can afford’
Whilst Shelley thought Hell ‘a city much like London’.
It is an enduringly fascinating story, with ‘a cast of thousands’: Fitzstephen, friend of Thomas à Becket, to whom ‘the only inconvenience of London is the immoderate drinking of foolish persons’; Burbage the actor-manager and his fellow player Will Shakespeare; clever, amorous Samuel Pepys; Boswell, whose London Journal is a mine of good quotes; the Prince Regent and John Nash who designed Regent’s Park; and many, many more.
The story is taken to the lurid, heroic days and nights of the Blitz, the Second Fire of London, and the period of reconstruction that followed.
Geoffrey Trease’s knowledge of London is extensive and peculiar. Many a native Londoner will find unexpected things in this survey of London’s rich and varied past.
“Geoffrey Trease has certainly got the knack. He can write for young people, in this case mainly for teenagers, without being obvious. The excitement is there where fact permits. So is the lucidity, with events all round the world fitting smoothly into their proper place and time” - The Daily Telegraph
“I found it a fascinating book. I wish that all history books were so inviting and intelligent.” - Naomi Lewes, BBC
“History at its most agreeable and readable.” - Time and Tide
Geoffrey Trease (1909-1998) was the author of more than one hundred books, including children’s books. He revolutionised children’s literature and was one of the first authors to deliberately appeal to both boys and girls through strong leading characters of both genders. In 1966 Trease won the New York Herald Tribune Book Award This is Your Century. Trease also wrote Samuel Pepys and His World .
With a bridge and a radiating network of roads, the Romans began creating Londinium. It grew and developed and spread.
From then on the city took on many forms.
The Anglo-Saxon Lundeneric
The London Town of Mayor Walworth and Wat Tyler
Dunbar’s ‘flower of cities all’
Spenser’s ‘most kindly nurse’.
To Dr Johnson, London had ‘all that life can afford’
Whilst Shelley thought Hell ‘a city much like London’.
It is an enduringly fascinating story, with ‘a cast of thousands’: Fitzstephen, friend of Thomas à Becket, to whom ‘the only inconvenience of London is the immoderate drinking of foolish persons’; Burbage the actor-manager and his fellow player Will Shakespeare; clever, amorous Samuel Pepys; Boswell, whose London Journal is a mine of good quotes; the Prince Regent and John Nash who designed Regent’s Park; and many, many more.
The story is taken to the lurid, heroic days and nights of the Blitz, the Second Fire of London, and the period of reconstruction that followed.
Geoffrey Trease’s knowledge of London is extensive and peculiar. Many a native Londoner will find unexpected things in this survey of London’s rich and varied past.
Praise for Geoffrey Trease
“Geoffrey Trease has certainly got the knack. He can write for young people, in this case mainly for teenagers, without being obvious. The excitement is there where fact permits. So is the lucidity, with events all round the world fitting smoothly into their proper place and time” - The Daily Telegraph
“I found it a fascinating book. I wish that all history books were so inviting and intelligent.” - Naomi Lewes, BBC
“History at its most agreeable and readable.” - Time and Tide
Geoffrey Trease (1909-1998) was the author of more than one hundred books, including children’s books. He revolutionised children’s literature and was one of the first authors to deliberately appeal to both boys and girls through strong leading characters of both genders. In 1966 Trease won the New York Herald Tribune Book Award This is Your Century. Trease also wrote Samuel Pepys and His World .
