Oh yeah Skip, Mrs Dalloway is one of my favourites. Always a copy by my side, or in my back pocket, you know, never too far away!

Don't cry, I'll help, only I can't think of any other books in London, even tho there must be fackin miwwions, me old china. Oi oi, lubbaduck, let's all go dan the strand and, indeed, ave a banana...

By the way, can't be bothered to lower the forums to another rant against religious FASCISTS of all varieties, so will chuck it in here if that's okay with you oh flame haired one, but anyone seen the fuss being kicked up by the holier than thou Christians, protesting outside the Beeb building as we speak? They are using their freedom to protest to try and restrict others freedom to expression (I know, its hard to believe, a bunch of FASCISTS from a religious group trying to censor art) because the Beeb are putting on a production so devestatingly spiritually, morally and politically corrupting it has gathered 30000 complaints (hmmm, not orchestrated then). Surely something so terrible must be stopped, before the moral fabric of our civilisation is destroyed forever. Must be something pretty hard hitting, for the FASCISTS to gather in such numbers.

The production is, of course, Jerry Springer The Opera...

I'm only censoring myself out of respect to other WW members, but seriously, what a bunch of f*#kin c*#ts.

Soz for the rant, but had to get it out before I started a whole new thread. Cheers Skip, I appreciate it!

Course it's cool, Dav, me old mucker. You know I love it when you get all ranty.

Agreed, that is ridiculous. I quite wanted to go and see JSTO, actually. And you know if you spell it the special way - 'fackin cyants' - you don't have to censor (now we probably will be!)

The flame-haired, distopian, Mr T soundalike, minxy ... erm... Londoner

x

I'm with Mike in admiration for Peter Ackroyd's Hawksmoor (which gets a namecheck in my own primarily London-based novel). Also, Anna's choice of Look at Me is the book that intoduced me to the Wallace Collection.

I've stopped reading Martin Amis, after loathing Money (books about guys with dirty underpants are not for me), but liked his early books such as The Rachel Papers, which has a memorable scene of the MC trying to impress a girlie near the Blake paintings in the Tate Gallery (now Tate Britain).

Adele.

I prefer Amis' early stuff too. Dead Babies is another one that has me wetting myself on trains - but from what I can remember that's not set in London.....

Cath

Yes Dead Babies had me laughing and breaking the silence of the British Intitute's wonderful library in Florence (room with a view of the Arno), but I can't remember where it's set either.

The Rachel Papers spends more time in Oxford than London (although it's a long time since I read it, so can't remember clearly) but the Tate scene stood out. It was recommended to me by a boyfriend who used it for as a manual for picking up girls (unwise of him to tell me where he got his ideas). Mysteriously, it worked with me on the acquisition front, but not when it came to retention...

Adele.

D'you know, I loved 'Money'. What does that say, I wonder:-( I think my current favourite London book is Andrea Levy's 'Small Island' which evokes a real nostalgia for the London of old, while at the same time underscoring the joys of a London where anything goes. She looks at the cultural certainties and the cultural contradictions that underpin the way the city has evolved over the last five decades. And it's funny. Shyama.

I haven't read Money but I know a lot of people who love it. Of the stuff I have read, though, I generally prefer his younger works.

Cath