It doesn’t happen that often, but every now and then I read a description of London that makes me sit up – finally somebody sees London in the same way that I do! The following is from Penelope Lively’s very pleasant 1984 novel According To Mark – and is a perfect study of the overlapping Londons that exist inside my brain, and perhaps some of the other readers of this very occasional (sorry!) but still just about hanging on blog.
“To drive from south-west to north-east London is not just to spend a lot of time sitting in traffic-jams but also, for a certain kind of person, to pass through a system of references and allusions that ought to be more dizzying than it actually is. Mark, during the next hour and a quarter, found himself reflecting – in quick succession – upon Roman Britain, Whistler, Daniel Defoe, Harrison Ainsworth, Virginia Woolf, Isambard Kingdom Brunel and various other matters, all of these prompted by fleeting glimpses of the slivery glitter of the river, the dome of St Paul, a railway station or street name.
The city, indeed, seemed to exist not just on an obvious, physical and visual plane but in a secondary and more mysterious way as a card-index system to an inexhaustible set of topics… And all these references coexist in a landscape even though separated from one another by decades and centuries; the mind has no problem latching onto each one in turn, switching obediently from one level to another, providing without effort the appropriate furnishings by way of costume, language and action.
The head should be spinning, and yet it isn’t; it accepts quite calmly the promptings of what is seen and what is known.”
More soon, perhaps.
The Great Wen 
I’m hanging on with you Peter. Don’t let go! As a Londoner living in exile in Bristol for many years (although not much more than an hour now on the train), I love to hear of others’ impressions of London, the impact it’s had on them, the feelings engendered by its many faces. An old favourite for me is Soft City by Jonathan Raban (1974); also The Lonely City: Adventures in the Art of being Alone by Olivia Laing (2016), which although featuring New York was for me very much redolent of how London can be. But apart from the books, it’s always good to hear from someone with good knowledge of the London scene for the same reasons. I hope you can keep it going.
Paul
Thanks Paul – and I love Soft City. I should try and re-read it.
Perfect, and you’ve encouraged me to reread ‘According to Mark’… Another very good Penelope Lively novel with excellent historical insights into London is her 1991 book ‘The City of the Mind’. If you remember the City from 30 plus years ago (as I do), it’s even better reading.
Thanks Kath – I have a feeling I have read that already but will have to double check. I have enjoyed every one of her books that I’ve read.