A masterpiece of miniaturist, social history. By closely examining the history of one house, Gillian Tindall tells the story of Southwark and the south bank, the river Thames and indeed of London itself.
Gillian Tindall is a master of miniaturist history, well known for the quality of her writing and the scrupulousness of her research; she makes a handful of people, a few locations or a dramatic event stand for the much larger picture, as her seminal book The Fields Beneath, approached the history of Kentish Town, London. She has also written on London's Southbank (The House by the Thames), on southern English counties (Three Houses, Many Lives), and the Left Bank (Footprints in Paris), amongst other locations, as well as biography and prize-winning novels. Her latest book, The Tunnel through Time, traced the history of the Crossrail route, the forthcoming 'Elizabeth' line. She has lived in the same London house for over fifty years.
Mesmeric... This book is not just for London enthusiasts. Tindall
has demonstrated a genius for a certain kind of social history
that, in shining a light on one small place, illuminated a huge
amount around... A rare instance of a history book that, in its
optimism about the indomitable spirit of the place, raises the
hairs on the back of your neck.
*Sunday Telegraph*
Fascinating... Gillian Tindall brilliantly deploys contemporary
observations to bring the centuries alive.
*Tablet*
Delightful... Tindall's story is truthful and unexaggerated,
combining elegantly elegiac prose with imaginative empathy and
descriptive power.
*Literary Review*
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