A History of London

Well, one thing you can say about a book about the history of a single city (even a large and ancient one) that's almost 1,000 pages long is that it's going to be thorough. And it certainly is; there's a huge amount of information in here, covering all aspects of the city's long history. The longest section of the book covers Victorian London, but there's almost as much on the 20th century and the Georgian period, and a substantial amount on the earlier periods - although our knowledge of anything much prior to around 1066 is somewhat limited, filled in more by archaeologists than by contemporary written sources.

The book naturally includes the major historical events in London's existence - the Great Fire, the Blitz, and the various changes in the structure of civic government down the years. There's also a significant focus on industry and trade, from the medieval guilds to Victorian factories and the city's modern role as a financial hub. But this is also a social history, discussing the lives of both poor and rich, and information on, for example, the changes in popular entertainment over the centuries.

I found this a fascinating and mostly readable book, although one suspects that a decent prior familiarity with the city will help a reader appreciate it.