London Lore: The Legends and Traditions of the World's Most Vibrant City
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Steve Roud List Price: £20.00 Our Price: £14.00 You Save: £6.00 (30%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Hardcover 464 pages Release Date: 09 October 2008 Publisher: Random House Books ISBN: 1847945112 Rating:  Sales Rank: 5817 | | Look for similar books by subject:
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| | Customer Reviews: Sheer Brilliance (06 January 2009)Clever, witty, remarkably easy too read and broken down for easy reference. The book is one of the most enthralling I've read I would tell anyone with even a small interest in the mysterious side of London to buy it. Just hope Roud may think of doing something similar with other cities York, Nottingham etc... Highly recommended (16 December 2008)I can't recommend this book too highly. It is sensible, erudite and completely fascinating, and tells you more about the folklore and traditions of London than you would ever believe possible. Horn fairs, dancing chimney sweeps, the real Dick Turpin and the truth about Ann Boleyn's well, pig-faced ghosts, witches, murders and even a vampire. The only problem is that once you have started reading it is very hard to stop. Fascinating book (20 October 2008)This is a fascinating book for anyone who loves London, and an eye-opener if you have ever wondered whether cities have any folklore apart from ghost stories. Steve Roud divides London into seven regions, and finds an amazing variety of tales and customs (past and present) to discuss in each one, and links them to the buildings and streets. In the section on the City of Westminster, for instance, you get gruesome tales of hangings at Tyburn, conspiracy theories surrounding the fate of Cromwell's corpse, the custom of wife-selling, May Day celebrations by chimney sweeps, plague pits, the fair at Mayfair, gypsy fortune tellers, a school Pancake Day custom, the famous ghosts of 50 Berkeley Square and Newgate Gaol, and much more. Roud doesn't just tell the story or describe the custom. He looks into its history and assesses the evidence, quoting directly from old or influential accounts. He has a rational, often amusing, way of dealing with nonsense and wild theories. We may have to wave goodbye to some favourite notions (about Sweeney Todd, or the Tower ravens, or Ring a Ring o' Roses), but the reasons behind them are always interesting. London's real traditions are even more entertaining than the fictions. | |
