David Long

'The Book of the Week. Even the most eager historians will find their knowledge challenged by this new book about the capital.' (Evening Standard)

'It's a book I think everyone should have.' (Robert Elms, BBC Radio London)

'The best possible start for anyone who wishes to get off the beaten track and under the skin of the hidden city that is modern-day London.' (Guardian)

'David Long's intriguing alphabetical survey - an attempt to impose order on chaos - lists hundreds of little courtyards and alleys, many almost forgotten among the banks and businesses.' (FT)

'This admirably structured and coherent book draws attention to the uncontrived diversity in London's architecture.' (Maxwell Hutchinson, President RIBA)

'The photographs are enigmatically stark, the text rich in anecdotes. Long brings a genuine pleasure to his subject and encourages his readers to look at London with an unceasing curiosity.' (The London Magazine)

'A quirkier look at the subject...plenty of new places here for even the most knowledgeable Londoner to explore.' (Museum of London)

'Quite an incredible wealth of information...an endorsement at the highest level should be given to David Long's new book'. (BBC Radio London)

'David Long tells the story of how a humble transport system rapidly became one of the city's greatest icons.' (The Spectator)

Fascinated by those strange, semi-hidden corners of London most of us cease to notice because we walk by them so often, David Long has been a writer since leaving a first class university with a second class degree in the 1980s. Whilst a columnist for the Sunday People he created a popular weekly cartoon strip which appeared in the Times, and continues to write for a wide diversity of newspapers and magazines both in Britain and abroad. Many of his most popular and best reviewed books reflect his longstanding interest in the less well-known aspects of London, its architecture and eccentric inhabitants - subjects, he says, which simply never run dry.