The Little Book of London | 
 enlarge | Author: David Long
Publisher: The History Press
Category: Book
List Price: £9.99
Buy New: £6.99
You Save: £3.00 (30%)
New (6) Used (5) from £5.99
Avg. Customer Rating:  6 reviews
Sales Rank: 18657
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 192
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.8
ISBN: 0750948000
Dewey Decimal Number: 942.1
EAN: 9780750948005
ASIN: 0750948000
Publication Date: July 23, 2007
Availability: In stock soon. Order now to get in line. First come, first served.
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.co.uk
Those of us who live in London and love the city (despite all its manifold faults) often have our own list of clandestine destinations, secrets and interesting facts about the capital -- which we're happy to show off to people not lucky enough to live here. But however well you think you know London, the chances are good that that David Long's The Little Book of London will enlarge your storehouse of knowledge. The quirky facts here are delightfully arcane -- such as the fact that the guns of HMS Belfast, moored on the Thames near Tower Bridge, are targeted at Barnet and, if fired, would destroy Scratchwood Services on the M1. Or the fact that the first parking meters were installed in Mayfair with a charge of a shilling (enough to keep parking attendants at bay for an hour -- the same amount today would buy you 45 seconds). In fact, it is often the wonderful historical nuggets here that are the most entertaining, even the grisly ones (such as the watchmaker who threw himself off the Whispering Gallery in St Paul's Cathedral in 1856, or the man who took a similar dive from the North Tower of the Crystal Palace 12 years later). Such items are crammed into the nearly 200 pages of this eccentric book, so if you are seeking bizarre facts about the railways, the Royal family, theatres or the number of rock stars who have popped their clogs in London, it's all here. And did you know that when Conan Doyle installed Sherlock Holmes in 221b Baker Street, the street numbering ran no further than 85? (That's the trouble with this book - you can't resist quoting it!) --Barry Forshaw
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| Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
Little Book of London December 18, 2008
Great little book, so interesting.It is a handy size, so easy to slip in a pocket when out and about in London. I bought three as christmas tree presents. Deciding to wrap my presents I picked up the book and spent the whole morning reading it. Needless to say I did not get much wrapping done. Now about to order two more, one of them for myself.
More please! July 9, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a delight this turned out to be! Thousands of irresistably silly facts about my favourite city, served up with humour and style and with the author's love of London shining through on every page. Over the years I must have bought a hundred books on London, good, bad and indifferent, but nothing like this and I couldn't believe how much new stuff Long has uncovered. New to me, anyway, and I suspect to most other readers as well. Ten out of ten.
What a cracker! January 8, 2008
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Got two copies for Xmas, and laughed solidly until I reached the end. Maybe not the most USEFUL book on London, but certainly the funniest in a long while. Odd anecdotes, strange facts, extraordinary people and wild goings-on combine to paint an irresistable portraint of the greatest city on earth.
 Great present, easy read, lots of laughs August 12, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
Definitely a browser rather than a traditional guide book, but still a real find for anyone with an interest in London with wealth of wacky or unexpected detail about both the modern and historic city, and all of it delivered with wit and panache.
Buy one for someone, then keep it yourself August 3, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
Bought this for a non-reading friend new to London (from NY)- as it looked like an easy-dip-in-dip-out book. Then I dipped in, then I dipped in a bit more, then I read the whole thing through and decided to keep it myself so I'm back to buy another. Some really, REALLY extraordinary stuff in here, and lots of bizarre stories about people and places - all of it true, he says - together with some neat cartoons and a lot of laughs.
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