Londen Perceived

V.S. Pritchett

Published by The Hogarth Press, softcover

London is a city of jostling contradictions, of grandeur and grime, bustle and peace, old and new, slums and splendour. Here is an affectionate, witty portrait of the heart of a nation by one of its most distinguished
twentieth-century citizens V.S. Pritchett grew up in London in the days of gas
lamps and hansom cabs, and still lives there.

He remembers his own days walking through the streets, following in the footsteps of a succession of London's other visitors and natives, from carousing Elizabethan sailors to Dickens, from Christopher Wren to T.S. Eliot.

The result is a panorama of London's history, art, literature and character through the centuries, from the earliest settlements on the banks of the Thames to the new city that arose from the bomti-sites of the Blitz to
form the foundations of the ever-changing London of today.

London Perceived is a vivid, fresh and penetrating view of a great and historic city that will make Londoners born and bred see their streets anew and visitors notice a different London behind the tourist traps.