Londoners
Craig Taylor
Londoners
Here are the voices of London — rich and poor, native and immigrant, women and men (and a Sarah who used to be a George) — witnessed by Craig Taylor, an acclaimed Canadian journalist, playwright and writer, who has lived in the city for ten years, exploring its hidden corners and listening to its residents. From the woman who is the voice of the London Underground to the man who plants the trees along Oxford Street; from a Muslim currency trader to a Guardsman at Buckingham Palace; from the marriage registrar at Westminster Town Hall to the director of the biggest Bethnal Green funeral parlour — together, these voices and many more, paint a vivid portrait of twenty-first century London.
4.3 out of 5 based on 5 reviews
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Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
Essays, Journals & Letters |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
400 |
| RRP |
£25.00 |
| Date of Publication |
November 2011 |
| ISBN |
978-1847082534 |
| Publisher |
Granta |
| |
Here are the voices of London — rich and poor, native and immigrant, women and men (and a Sarah who used to be a George) — witnessed by Craig Taylor, an acclaimed Canadian journalist, playwright and writer, who has lived in the city for ten years, exploring its hidden corners and listening to its residents. From the woman who is the voice of the London Underground to the man who plants the trees along Oxford Street; from a Muslim currency trader to a Guardsman at Buckingham Palace; from the marriage registrar at Westminster Town Hall to the director of the biggest Bethnal Green funeral parlour — together, these voices and many more, paint a vivid portrait of twenty-first century London.
Londoners, who do we think we are? | Craig Taylor | Evening Standard (10/11/11)
Reviews
The New York Times
Sarah Lyall
"I picture Taylor as a good-natured, cheerful, friendly, patient, constantly engaging fellow. But whatever his demeanor — I’m only guessing — there’s a great deal of art behind his book’s apparent artlessness. Except for a few scene-setting paragraphs here and there, we barely hear from him. But the material he elicits proves his skill not only in asking questions that find the eloquence even in the naturally taciturn, but also in knowing the value of keeping offstage. “Londoners” is a master class in self-effacing journalism. In an age of celebrity interviewers and bombastic, self-loving television hosts, Taylor is the rare specimen who appears genuinely to believe that other people’s words are more interesting than his own."
01/03/2012
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The Times
Oona King
"The enchanting thing about Londoners is that it turns statistics into people ... I feel I almost learned more about Londoners from this book than from being a Londoner for more than four decades."
19/11/2011
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The Sunday Times
Nick Rennison
"[A] memorable, funny and occasionally melancholy collection of mini-monologues … A nightclub door attendant named Emmajo Read provides the lowdown on how to deal with “the casualty hour, when everyone is a complete mess and everything just goes nuts” and then touchingly describes her delight in the summer sunrises she witnesses as she makes her way home after work. Taylor’s book is at its best in such moments when the personality of his Londoners shines through their words. Other interviewees emerge with less credit. The planning officer spouting fodder worthy of Pseuds Corner (“Places make the best lovers… I think of London as a partner”) makes one glad that the city has always proved fairly resistant to planning."
20/11/2011
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The Guardian
Sukhdev Sandhu
"What makes Londoners as valuable as any sociological treatise is Taylor's appreciation of the ways in which his subjects are themselves surveying, analysing and theorising the turbulent city in which they live ... At more than 400 pages, the book could easily have been twice as long. I would have liked more elderly voices. And younger ones, too ... But this remains a remarkable volume"
05/11/2011
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The Observer
Iain Sinclair
"It is his conceit that there is a distinction between "the lives of the people" and the weight of geography and tradition in which they are suspended. But it can be argued that his citizens and strangers — scavengers, freaks, students, artists, property developers, bankers — are never more than an extension of a historical process. We are metropolitan dust, soon to blow away, waving and jabbering, before we vanish for ever. Craig Taylor tunes in to some of that babble, the multi-tongued, self-justifying noise of the streets. And he leaves us with a substantial account, not just of our imaginary riverside capital, but, more vividly, of himself: as inquirer, investigator, part of a long and valuable lineage."
06/11/2011
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