Between the Stops 
A novel of George Orwell in 1920s BURMA
Ten great books set in LONDON
21st April 2024
London is a vibrant tapestry of history and modernity. It thrums with life. Tower Bridge and Big Ben stand as iconic symbols, while Buckingham Palace offers a glimpse of royal grandeur. Borough Market overflows with gastronomic treasures. World-class museums, from the British Museum to Tate Modern, house artistic marvels. Theatre stages come alive in the West End, and iconic parks like Hyde Park provide green havens. London’s energy is contagious, promising endless exploration for every visitor.
‘The dog’s bollocks’ – the very best: London saying
Between the Stops by Sandi Toksvig
‘Between the Stops is a sort of a memoir, my sort. It’s about a bus trip really, because it’s my view from the Number 12 bus (mostly top deck, the seat at the front on the right), a double-decker that plies its way from Dulwich, in South East London, where I was living, to where I sometimes work – at the BBC, in the heart of the capital. It’s not a sensible way to write a memoir at all, probably, but it’s the way things pop into your head as you travel, so it’s my way’.
From London facts including where to find the blue plaque for Una Marson, ‘The first black woman programme maker at the BBC’, to discovering the best Spanish coffee under Southwark’s railway arches; from a brief history of lady gangsters at Elephant and Castle to memories of climbing Mount Sinai and, at the request of a fellow traveller, reading aloud the Ten Commandments; from the story behind Pissarro’s painting of Dulwich Station to performing in Footlights with Emma Thompson; from painful memoires of being sent to Coventry while at a British boarding school to thinking about how Wombells Travelling Circus of 1864 haunts Peckham Rye;from anecdotes about meeting Prince Charles, Monica Lewinsky and Grayson Perry to Bake-Off antics; from stories of a real and lasting friendship with John McCarthy to the importance of family and the daunting navigation of the Zambezi River in her father’s canoe, this Sandi Toksvig-style memoir is, as one would expect and hope, packed full of surprises.
A funny and moving trip through memories, musings and the many delights on the Number 12 route, Between the Stops is also an inspiration to us all to get off our phones, look up and to talk to each other because as Sandi says: ‘some of the greatest trips lie on our own doorstep’.
Literary London by Eloise Millar & Sam Jordison
A fascinating guide to the best literary landmarks in London that takes the reader into publishing houses and along paths of inspiration, revealing the stories behind the stories.
One of the world’s greatest literary cities, London has streets full of stories and buildings steeped in history.
The biggest and most beloved names in English literature have all been here, and you can still see or visit their stomping grounds and favourite places.
Follow Oscar Wilde from the literary salons to Clapham Junction; roam with Julian McClaren Ross through Fitzrovia, dropping in for a pint or three with Dylan Thomas at the Bricklayers’ Arms; muse darkly over the Thames with Spencer, Eliot and Conrad; and watch aghast as Lord Byron terrorizes his publisher on Albemarle Street…
Moving through time and genre, from Spencer and Shakespeare to Amis and Barnes, from tragedy and romance to chick-lit and science fiction, Literary London is a snappy and informative guide, showing just why – as another famous local writer put it – he who is tired of London is tired of life.
A Brief Affair by Margaret Leroy
The cups and saucers on the dresser begin to rattle faintly, as though a tremulous hand is holding them. The water in the washing-up bowl shivers all over its surface. There’s a distant droning, something at first more felt than heard, like the far-off thunder of some massive waterfall. Rapidly coming closer . . .’
September 1940. England is a war once again and London has become an ever-fragile place for widowed Livia Ripley and her two young daughters, Polly and Eliza. When Livia meets charismatic publisher Hugo Ballantyne, she is hopeful that her life is about to change for the better. But as clouds gather in the clear autumn sky, the wail of the siren heralds the arrival of the Luftwaffe.
As the raids intensify, Livia volunteers to be a warden at the invitation of enigmatic Justin Connelly. Here she experiences the true reality and despair of war, a contrast to the world of comfort and cocktails provided in fleeting afternoons at the Balfour Hotel with Hugo. And ultimately, Livia discovers a strength she never knew she had that will give her the power to save those she loves. For when you don’t know what tomorrow may bring, there is no choice but to live for today.
Reminiscent of classic films like Brief Encounter and The End of the Affair, this is a stunningly captured story of a woman finding herself whilst the world is at war.
An Almond for a Parrot by Wray Delaney
London, 1756: In Newgate prison, Tully Truegood awaits trial. Her fate hanging in the balance, she tells her life-story. It’s a tale that takes her from skivvy in the back streets of London, to conjuror’s assistant, to celebrated courtesan at her stepmother’s Fairy House, the notorious house of ill-repute where decadent excess is a must…
Tully was once the talk of the town. Now, with the best seats at Newgate already sold in anticipation of her execution, her only chance of survival is to get her story to the one person who can help her avoid the gallows.
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
The seventy-fifth anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Anthony Quinn.
‘I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific’ Sarah Waters
‘If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man’ Nick Hornby
Patrick Hamilton’s novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne’s new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.
London, 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation. Netta is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George. George is adrift in a drunken hell, except in his ‘dead’ moments, when something goes click in his head and he realises, without a doubt, that he must kill her. In the darkly comic Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton brilliantly evokes a seedy, fog-bound world of saloon bars, lodging houses and boozing philosophers, immortalising the slang and conversational tone of a whole generation and capturing the premonitions of doom that pervaded London life in the months before the war.
Londoners by Craig Taylor
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, epic and wholly fresh portrait of Twenty-First Century London.
Mother London by Michael Moorcock
A large, though never sprawling, novel Mother London follows three mental-hospital outpatients Mary Gasalee, David Mummery and Josef Kiss and their friends, in an episodic, non-linear history of the capital from the Blitz to present day. Most noteworthy is the astounding humanity of the novel. Throughout the book the voice of ordinary Londoners forces its way into the narratives through snippets of conversations “overheard” by the three main characters who each have, to a greater or lesser extent, the gift of telepathy. This hint of magic is underplayed throughout so that the work never succumbs to the straitjacket of magical realism itself: the conceit is used very successfully to take our characters out of themselves, and to allow London, and the voices that constitute her being, into the novel as a character herself.
My Story: Blitz by Vince Cross
My Story: Blitz is a thrilling wartime tale about two siblings evacuated to Wales.
It’s 1940, and with London under fire Edie and her little brother are evacuated to Wales. Miles from home and missing her family, Edie is determined to be strong, but when life in the countryside proves tougher than in the capital she is torn between obeying her parents and protecting her brother.
Experience history first-hand with My Story in this all-new look.
The Chase by Ava Glass
These are the instructions sent to new operative Emma Makepeace.
She’s been assigned to track down a man wanted by the Russians and bring him into MI5.
It should be easy. But the Russians have eyes everywhere.
Emma knows that if spotted she and her target will be killed.
What follows is a perilous chase through London’s night-time streets.
But in a city full of cameras, where can you hide?
The House on Half Moon Street by Alex Reeve
Everyone has a secret… Only some lead to murder. Introducing Leo Stanhope: a Victorian transgender coroner’s assistant who must uncover a killer without risking his own future
When the body of a young woman is wheeled into the hospital where Leo Stanhope works, his life is thrown into chaos. Maria, the woman he loves, has been murdered and it is not long before the finger of suspicion is turned on him, threatening to expose his lifelong secret.
For Leo Stanhope was born Charlotte, the daughter of a respectable reverend. Knowing he was meant to be a man – despite the evidence of his body – and unable to cope with living a lie any longer, he fled his family home at just fifteen and has been living as Leo ever since: his secret known to only a few trusted people.
Desperate to find Maria’s killer and thrown into gaol, he stands to lose not just his freedom, but ultimately his life.
Which titles would you add to the list? Remember there are more than 1300 to choose from in the London listings on TripFiction…! Each will transport you to some excellent fiction, travelogues or memoirs set in the city. Or you may have your own favourites you would like to include. Please leave your thoughts in the Comments box below.
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Jukebox by Saira Viola covers Clerkenwell High Holborn Farringdon Hatton Garden and West End Central . Also the posher parts of London from Mayfair and Lower Sloane Street thru to Knightsbridge . All of the eateries are well worth a visit and the clubs and bars
To add to your list:
Hawksmoor by Roger Ackroyd (read the book, then visit the churches mentioned)