Time Out London Walks: 30 Walks By London Writers (1)

by Time Out Guides, Sarah Guy (Editor)

Fully revised and updated, Time Out London Walks, Volume I features 30 walks around the British capital by some of London's finest novelists, artists, comedians, and historians. Contributors include best-selling author Margaret Drabble, television personality Graham Norton, biographer Richard Holmes, and others. Kim Newman leads readers on a bloodstained trail through Soho of film murder sites. In "Of Kites and Keats," Kate Kellaway takes a nostalgic stroll through the area of North London the poet knew best. Other entries include Margaret Forster on Hampstead Heath, Joan Smith on Hammersmith and Chiswick, and Philip Zeigler on Holland Park and Kensington Palace. Each walk is accompanied by a detailed map and information about attractions along the way.

Genres: London, Travel

304 pages, Paperback

First published July 10, 2005

Reviews

[Chas Bayfield]

This book is a right mixed bag. I'm not sure if, having commissioned (and no doubt paid) its walkers, Time Out felt obligated to include their walks, but a bit of editing would have helped. Firstly, and this is no fault of the publisher, I bought this new in 2017 only to find it was published in 2005! It talks about buildings due to be opened or completed in 2009 or in time for the 2012 London Olympics! No doubt there are newer Time Out walking books on the shelves but this is the one I picked up. Some of the walkers are fantastic (Graham Norton, Nicholas Royle and Lucinda Lambton stand out); others make you wonder if they were bing deliberately contrary in picking their walks -Wormwood Scrubbs and under the Westway, Margaret Drabble? Janet Street Porter's walk seemed all about her, which I guess is permissible if the walk is your favourite one, Dan Cruikshank's is a joyless factual trudge through the city, Margaret Forster doesn't like children, Darcus Howe doesn't like Christians and Yvonne Roberts seems not to like either Clapham or Wandsworth Commons yet forces us to walk them with her. However, Nicholas Royle turns his walk into something akin to a modern art exercise by leaving a copy of a second hand Derek Marlowe novel in every house the writer once lived in, and Lucinda Lambton's trek through Kensal Green cemetery could have been twice as long and I would still have read every word and googled every grave. Like I say, a mixed bag. Hopefully more editorial involvement was employed for the later editions of this book, if there are any.

[Dominika]

I have completed one walk so far, but it was just amazing - although I have been in London for the last 11 years, I simply missed so many staff - this book showed my London in a very different light!