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Product Description
Review
“Revealing anecdotes go far beyond familiar guide-book tales…Johnson’s unerring eye for detail catches your attention but also moves his story on…Johnson sets out his stall for London’s future with such patent sincerity that you’d have to be stony-hearted not to go along for the ride” Mail on Sunday
“As the thumbnail sketches accumulate, we come to realise just how like Boris all the London heroes have been” Evening Standard
“Boris’s book is half the size, a lighter weight in every way….it is the work of a journalist….someone with a love of painting word pictures ….this is a book of hidden gems….his vocabulary is extraordinary and his polymathery a joy….as he cycles through history….we glimpse him everywhere….it is best when Boris’s enthusiasms are on display, as exuberant as a vase of bird-of-paradise blooms” The Times
“Johnson’s sketchbook diverts……(while) Livingstone’s doorstop apologia will try the patience of the most obsessional geek”. The Independent
Product Description
London is special. For centuries, it has been amongst the greatest cities of the world. But a city is nothing without its people. This sparkling new history of London, told through a relay-race of great Londoners shows in one, personality-packed book that the ingenuity, diversity, creativity and enterprise of London are second to none.
Boris Johnson believes that in order to understand London one has to know about its past. The heart and spirit of London lies in its people, in the range of its cultures. Through its diversity and energy, London provides an environment which empowers people to create, the impetus to invent. Boris Johnson’s new book explores this cross current of influences between Westminster and the City, between the politicians and the wealth creators, over many centuries from Boudacea to the Rolling Stones.
JOHNSON’S LIFE OF LONDON – a fitting tribute of course to one of the greatest Londoners – celebrates many of the characters who have made this city great. Boris’s book provides a chronological story of London but is written in the form of a relay race of biographies – some very famous figures, some more obscure. He ranges from the Romans to one of the author’s predecessors as mayor, Dick Whittington; from John Wilkes (a strong upholder of the freedom of the press) to J.W. Turner; from Chaucer to Gandhi, and through to modern times.
Boris Johnson writes with wit and erudition, providing the reader with delightful insights. The book discovers London as none of us have seen it before and the journey is exhilarating and surprising .
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
History comes alive only when written from the heart and Johnson's is full of swashbuckling japes, bloodthirsty yells and energetic sideswipes. A fantastic read. Sean - did you read the wrong book?
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
I was given this book by a relation who, to my knowledge, has never voted Conservative, so it came as quite a surprise.
Boris clearly loves to entertain as well as inform. There is also the teasing - each chapter contains a word I have never heard of - is he creating a new lexicon?
This book is full of vitality and energy and has evidently had a huge amount of research. Where did he find the time?
Peter Rust
Boris clearly loves to entertain as well as inform. There is also the teasing - each chapter contains a word I have never heard of - is he creating a new lexicon?
This book is full of vitality and energy and has evidently had a huge amount of research. Where did he find the time?
Peter Rust
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This is Boris's cleverly constructed manifesto to secure his next sojourn as London's Mayor and it's better than stuffing pamphlets through doors. He shows a love of London and an instinctive grasp of what makes Londoners tick, presented in his unique Beano-like style where he lays his scholarship under a veneer of prep-school vulgarity and japery. You get the feeling this is a rather well-educated toff having fun; Private Eye of course has captured the vernacular perfectly in its Boris lampoons. The reader/voter can feel Boris is not taking himself too seriously and nobody likes a pompous politician. From Roman times to the present he continually updates himself with references to the Euro or recession.He pays homage to big finance and big ideas without which we wouldn't have a London, but he also takes a pot now and again at bankers and money-men.He covers the building of the city from all angles of its culture, brown-nosing nobody but appreciative of the myriad skills that go into making London, from the real story of wealthy Dick Whittington to the foresight of Joseph Bazalgette and his sewers.He overdid it a bit extolling the virtues and importance of Keith Richards and the Stones and his final chapter is unashamed vote seeking even down to the desirability of his pet project, the Thames Estuary Airport. But whatever your politics this is gripping and educational and downright hilarious stuff, while its accuracy and viewpoint will be questioned endlessly as every historical document should be. I'd rather read this than the election address that's just landed in my letter-box....
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Life of London by Boris Johnson
Great book really interesting, passed it on to my 91 yr old mother who is a londoner, she loved it.
Published 2 months ago by Mrs V M Storey
Johnson's Life of London
This book was purchased as a present for someone else. I have not therefore read the book so I am unable to comment on the content and the reading material. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Anon
Fascinating
I am only part way through the book so far but it was an excellent choice. I chose it after reading the first few pages on line and it keeps up that style and interest as the... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Picky reader
An indulgent romp through London's history
Thank goodness for a man who can say what he thinks (and put it into print), and not give a fig about what anyone else thinks. Read more
Published 4 months ago by S. Becker
A great read
Interesting subject described informatively yet with a light touch and full of interesting snippets of extra information (and an occasional opinion! Read more
Published 4 months ago by Cynthia M
Boris better for London than Livingstone - a clever manifesto
Boris Johnson has been 'Boris the buffoon' in my book for as long as I can recall but, despite that, he seems still to propel himself to greater popularity. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Geoffrey Woollard
It's not Boris!
This review is for the audio book only.
Whilst the content of the book is good, warm and informative if slightly nostalgic, I can only give the audiobook one star as... Read more
Whilst the content of the book is good, warm and informative if slightly nostalgic, I can only give the audiobook one star as... Read more
Published 4 months ago by mattyb1983
London Book
I think for the value this was good compared to buying from Waterstones. As a present for Christmas I think it also brought a lot of enjoyment as it tells the history of London... Read more
Published 4 months ago by J Roberts
Wonderful
Absolutely loved this book, fun, witty, well written and a fascinating account of the history of my home city. Bravo!
Published 5 months ago by Helen
Florid and fanciful
Right from the start I found this to be full of flights of imagination which have no supporting evidence - for example, he paints lurid vignettes of the Roman abandonment of London... Read more
Published 5 months ago by Mr. D. J. Child
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