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London Orbital
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
One might be forgiven for thinking that the only thing more boring than spending a year walking around the M25 would be reading a large book about walking around the M25. Yet Iain Sinclair's London Orbital is a fascinating and curiously haunting read. Part of the reason is that Sinclair brings to the project an immense literary talent, an intense and lifelong interest in the history of London and some extremely interesting travelling companions.
The walk was taken in several stages, from Waltham Abbey to Shenley, Abbots Langley to Staines, Staines to Epsom and Epsom to Westerham before going on to Dartford, the river and Carfax and arriving back at Waltham Abbey. Each stage fills a chapter and the reader is advised to take a leaf out of Sinclair's own book by taking one stage, one chapter at a time. This is a large book of 450-odd pages and by the time the journey gets under way-–about 60 pages in--even Sinclair's dazzling prose is not enough to offset the gloomy prospect of taking a second-hand trip around the London Orbital. And yet after the first trip one finds oneself being sucked in and thinking about some of the grey, ugly images, or being angered by the grasping and philistine approach of developers and copywriters and the cynicism and hypocrisy of government.
The history of London has long been Sinclair's great passion but he populates this strange excursion with flesh-and-blood people as well as literary and mythic figures: there's John Clare watching Byron's funeral procession before embarking on his epic three-day journey back to Northborough, "chewing tobacco and gnawing grass torn up from the roadside"; then there are tales of Dracula, of lost lunatic asylums, of passionate political activists crying out against toxic land and of meetings with ex-members of London's criminal underworld.
London Orbital gets under the skin. What looks at first like a dull and deeply unappealing journey is actually a multi-layered, lyrical, ugly, mythical, engaged and engaging excursion from the present into the past and back again. --Larry Brown
Review
Sinclair's writing may be caviar to the general, but his rich and allusive style won him many new friends in the much acclaimed Lights Out For the Territory, a more accessible than usual book for Sinclair in which he anatomised the territory he made his own, the streets and rivers of inner London. Many Sinclair admirers felt that he would return to his less accessible (but richly rewarding) writing, but he has once again defeated expectations. London Orbital has a new agenda: it maps an area much less fashionable and previously uncharted: that vast chasm of urban settlement outside London surrounded by the great circle of the M25. One can always rely on Sinclair's unique imagination to find bizarre and brilliant material from his journeys.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Living a stone's throw from the M25 and being a keen walker and (not so keen) M25 marauder I was quite looking forward to this, the book having occupied my shelf for a few years since purchase.
After several unfulfilling hours I soon realised why it had remained untouched for so long. To be honest, it's just a big ramble (no pun intended) and rant about whatever random thought jumped into the authors head from Maggie to Tone, unscrupulous developers, the Millennium Dome (a good 15 miles from the M25) you name it, Sinclair has a long drawn out opinion on it. It was about 100 pages in before the M25 was physically reached, the author making his way there via the Lea Valley (see other rants) with two virtually silent companions - Unabomber creator and the so-clever bloke from KLF who burnt a million quid for the sake of it. You judge a man by the company he keeps I guess.
Call me old-fashioned but I thought this would be an interesting account of the journey with factual background added for interest but this is about Iain Sinclair demonstrating his use of big words and total lack of humour. No banter, no laughs, nothing. I gave up after about a third of the way through when the author had travelled about 150 yards along the motorway, or at least I think he had. It was difficult to tell and I was well past caring by then...
After several unfulfilling hours I soon realised why it had remained untouched for so long. To be honest, it's just a big ramble (no pun intended) and rant about whatever random thought jumped into the authors head from Maggie to Tone, unscrupulous developers, the Millennium Dome (a good 15 miles from the M25) you name it, Sinclair has a long drawn out opinion on it. It was about 100 pages in before the M25 was physically reached, the author making his way there via the Lea Valley (see other rants) with two virtually silent companions - Unabomber creator and the so-clever bloke from KLF who burnt a million quid for the sake of it. You judge a man by the company he keeps I guess.
Call me old-fashioned but I thought this would be an interesting account of the journey with factual background added for interest but this is about Iain Sinclair demonstrating his use of big words and total lack of humour. No banter, no laughs, nothing. I gave up after about a third of the way through when the author had travelled about 150 yards along the motorway, or at least I think he had. It was difficult to tell and I was well past caring by then...
33 of 40 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The other reviews here left me a little puzzled, perhaps the readers found Sinclair a tad intimidating? I don't say this to be unkind, as at times, I too had to put the book down to take some respite from the barrage of information, images and references. This is more than just a piece of travel writing, it is the nexus of an almost overwhelming number of intertextual as well as geographic explorations. Iain Sinclair walked, not just through the physical locations he describes, but also through time, history and the sheer abstract. His wanderings as a modern day flaneur are inciteful, educated and hugely original. The story of a hike around the M25 really shouldn't be interesting, but Sinclair makes it so. He opens our eyes to the political and historical reality of the gradually increasing sprawl of London, as well as its psychological effects on modern life. I read this and then graduated to the even more intimidating 'Landor's Tower'. I'd recommend both highly, but unless you're widely read, you may have a little trouble keeping up with Sinclair's train of thought. He doesn't insult his readers, he assumes a high level of intelligence. A breath of fresh air in these times of trashy faddish novels and celebrity autobiographies...
12 of 15 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This looked great in the bookshop but after the 1st few pages I knew it was going to be a difficult journey (excuse the pun). Sniping remarks about Thatcher and Blair straight out of the 6th form didn`t help.Once his "yawn" whacky mates (Drummond etc) turned up it went even further downhill. Did he really set fire to a million "quid" ? Probably not . I`m sure there must be a point to this book but maybe I`m too thick and too not-from-London to appreciate it. He could have written the same waffle about the M42 (Brum orbital) its just as depressing. It gets 2 stars for effort only.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Superb book.
Brilliant and interesting look at the M25's hold on London and the surrounding area.
A great incite into things you probably drove,walked or cycled past and never gave a... Read more
A great incite into things you probably drove,walked or cycled past and never gave a... Read more
Published 29 days ago by Croker
Reversing demonic energies
Iain Sinclair and his band of merry pranksters circumnavigate the M25 in an attempt to exorcise the bad vibes of the Thatcher and Blair regimes. Read more
Published 10 months ago by G. J. Marsh
Fantastic concept yet awful - if not dire - in execution
I was immediately attracted to this book, as I love unusual, quirky concepts (for example books such as "Broke Through Britain" by Peter Mortimer). Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. M. Lamb
Tedious Tripe
badly in need of an editor Sinclair visits a few of his old mates and otherwise wanders around pretending to be dangerous and mysterious
Published on 2 Dec 2009 by charlie james
The Rolling English Road it's not...
"London Orbital" is the first work from Iain Sinclair that I have tackled. To be honest, I wondered at the beginning of this extraordinary journey, whether I was going to make it. Read more
Published on 4 Feb 2009 by Secret Spi
London Orbital
Its some time since I read London Orbital so perhaps this review is not as precise as it should be, and gives my memory of reading it. I was astounded. Read more
Published on 27 April 2008 by Etta Alex
Interesting, but hard going at times
London Orbital deserves the praise it's received - it's well-written, interesting and stays in the mind beyond the last page. However - it's not always an easy, comfortable read. Read more
Published on 25 Feb 2008 by Jl Adcock
Driven round the bend
I am afraid I have to agree with the reviewers who didn't like "London Orbital". I originally skimmed through the book in a bookshop and it didn't appeal to me. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2006 by Mr. Christian Hoskins
One of the best books I have ever read
The London Orbital, I found it fantastic. It is a great book written by a man that has so much feeling in what he does. Read more
Published on 2 Nov 2004 by Sean Davis
A little bit too desperate...
... to be evocative. The interesting information is submerged by the prolix writing. The author displays much of the Time Out-style London political bigotry (i.e. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2004
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