About the Author

Liza Picard was born in 1927. She worked for the Inland Revenue for many years and lived in London, before retiring to Oxford where she now lives.

Reviews

Reading her book is like gazing at one of those energetic, crowded canvanses by the Victorian painter William Powell Frith. - THE EVENING STANDARD - AN WilsonShe is an engaging companion, always wondering out loud about the sort of questions which you've asked yourself........an enjoyable book. - THE SPECTATOR - Philip HensherPicard enjoys recounting the gruesome daily mechanics of living in what Cobbett described as 'the great wen' - NEW STATESMAN - Tristrum Hunt'Picard is particularly good on the sort of thing that contemporary chronicles didn't always think to put in..... a very welcome addition to the skyline - THE GUARDIAN - Adam NeweyThis book is a feast of tit-bits, bringing 19th-century London to life piecemeal with the accumulation of facts. - THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH - Jad AdamsLiza Picard shares Victorian Londoners' enthusiasm for their bits and bobs. - THE DAILY TELEGRAPH - Kate SummerscaleShe writes the old history, descriptive and unanalytical, painted in exhilarating colours. Victorian London, finest example of the greatest urban age since the Renaissance, was made for her. - THE SUNDAY TIMES - Simon JenkinsThe book is a mine of information. - THE WEEK