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The Best Books to read for an Autumn trip to London
1st October 2018
Halloween is just around the corner….The Best Books To Read For An Autumn Trip To London
The city of London has a wonderful history with literature that is ideal for the autumn season. This is a time of year when the days get shorter, the weather gets cooler, and there’s a certain hunger for spooky material – whether that means the latest horror film or a lighthearted children’s ghost story. And it just so happens that London is at the core or foundation of some of the best gothic, horror, or even explicitly Halloween-themed works in literary history.
As you might imagine, reading such a book while actually visiting the British capital is about as good as it gets! Whether you find a coffee shop or pub to read in, sit somewhere outside in more reasonable weather, or simply curl up in a nice hotel room in town, there’s something about being in London this time of year and reading a ghost story or gothic horror tale that just feels right. So without further ado, this is our list of recommended reads for Autumn in London.
A Study In Scarlet by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is actually best known for his shorter Sherlock Holmes mysteries, and you certainly couldn’t go wrong with a collection of these tales either. However, if you’re looking for a proper detective novel embodying the old, semi-gothic image of London in the Holmes era, look no further than A Study In Scarlet. This is actually the first mystery of any kind featuring the legendary characters of Dr. John Watson and Detective Sherlock Holmes. It concerns their early time together as roommates on Baker Street as they endeavor to solve a murder mystery right there in London.
Slade House by David Mitchell
David Mitchell has become famous for all sorts of fantastical tricks, from reincarnation to tangled timelines to immortality. Slade House is in some ways a simpler novel for him, though in a way it’s also his most unsettling “like Stephen King in a fever”, as one review put it. This is effectively a ghost story, about a house hidden in town where people seem to disappear once every so often. It does have some connections to other works by Mitchell, but if you read it before you know the author’s work, you’ll likely be hungry for more. It’s a haunting but riveting spook.
The Strange Case Of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson
This famous, 19th century tale seems to be enjoying a mild resurgence. First, a game based on its characters and concept appeared among the reels in a free slot gaming section online. It’s an animated take, and a less than serious one, but still keeps the tale alive for a whole new demographic. Next, Russell Crowe played the role of Dr. Jekyll in The Mummy, a film meant to launch a series of installments that may include a Jekyll and Hyde movie. None of this does justice to the original novella by Robert Louis Stevenson. As good a London haunt as any, it’s a story that will make you buy into a whole genre of early, gothic, monster fiction.
From Hell by Alan Moore and Eddie Campbell
From Hell is a different sort of selection for this list, because it’s actually a graphic novel that was initially published in serial form before being formed into a cohesive volume in 1999. Without giving away too much detail, the graphic novel is largely about the infamous killer Jack the Ripper, which in a way makes it a version of the definitive scary story set in London.
Harry Potter & The Philosopher’s Stone by J K Rowling
We’ll go with something lighter for the final selection. J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series doesn’t all take place in London, but it is involved in the series from time to time. Additionally, if you consider the scarier plot lines or even the scariest characters in this series, most of them come in the later books – from the end of Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire through Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows. However, if you’re just looking for a cheery Halloween read, this first installment may be the most Halloween-y of the bunch, so to speak. There’s more talk about the Hogwarts Halloween feast, pumpkin juice, and all of that good stuff, which makes it a great atmospheric read for the season.
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