Taking a trip to London and Scotland in May and want to get in the mood with some books taking place there. Also, if anyone has anyone literature-related suggestions of things to do there, I would love to hear it!
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronvitch. Nothing serious – Harry Potter meets Sherlock Holmes.
Caleb_Trask19 on
I recall Audrey Niffenegger’s “Her Fearful Symmetry” painted an intriguing sense of London from an outsider’s perspective with the Chicago twin sisters moving there.
Brian Selznick’s hybrid words and images middle grade novel The Marvels gives a sense of life in the early theatre and the life of one of the city’s great eccentrics whose house is now a museum, not well known by many people.
If you willing to wade into nonfiction that is very literary 84 Charing Cross road completely reconfigured my view of England after the war, and her follow up book The Duchess of Bloomsbury St. is a wacky literary travelogue of her time in London after the first book is published, and may inspire some longtime sites to visit.
Ghost Maps is about the invention of the public health tool of mapping illness and death that gets created during the 1854 Cholera epidemic. I don’t exactly sell it with that, but it’s fascinating about the layers of civilization that build up upon land long occupied – in this case since Roman times and how that can impact the current residents living there.
tyrannosaurusflax on
Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie
FernOrBracken on
Contemporary books set in London off the top of my head: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, NW by Zadie Smith, Expectation by Anna Hope, Private Rites by Julia Armfield, Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson.
Ealinguser on
Scotland:
Iain Banks: the Crow Road
Any of Ian Rankins Inspector Rebus and I believe there is a Rebus ‘trail’ in Edinburgh
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Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronvitch. Nothing serious – Harry Potter meets Sherlock Holmes.
I recall Audrey Niffenegger’s “Her Fearful Symmetry” painted an intriguing sense of London from an outsider’s perspective with the Chicago twin sisters moving there.
Brian Selznick’s hybrid words and images middle grade novel The Marvels gives a sense of life in the early theatre and the life of one of the city’s great eccentrics whose house is now a museum, not well known by many people.
If you willing to wade into nonfiction that is very literary 84 Charing Cross road completely reconfigured my view of England after the war, and her follow up book The Duchess of Bloomsbury St. is a wacky literary travelogue of her time in London after the first book is published, and may inspire some longtime sites to visit.
Ghost Maps is about the invention of the public health tool of mapping illness and death that gets created during the 1854 Cholera epidemic. I don’t exactly sell it with that, but it’s fascinating about the layers of civilization that build up upon land long occupied – in this case since Roman times and how that can impact the current residents living there.
Bring the House Down by Charlotte Runcie
Contemporary books set in London off the top of my head: The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley, NW by Zadie Smith, Expectation by Anna Hope, Private Rites by Julia Armfield, Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson.
Scotland:
Iain Banks: the Crow Road
Any of Ian Rankins Inspector Rebus and I believe there is a Rebus ‘trail’ in Edinburgh
Peter May’s Lewis trilogy (crime)
Lewis Grassic Gibbon: Sunset Song
AJ Cronin: the Green Years
Sir Walter Scott: the Bride of Lammermoor
London:
Monica Ali: Brick Lane
Bernardine Evaristo: Mr Loverman
Michael Moorcock: Mother London
Will Self: the Book of Dave
Edmund Rutherfurd: London
Jack London: People of the Abyss (non fiction)