“Londoners” by Craig Taylor

I have literally had this book for ten years without cracking it open, always intending to read it and never doing so. When deciding on which books to bring with me for our recent trip to England, this seemed an obvious choice, so into the suitcase it went... and then I ended up not reading it. But when we returned home and I unpacked, it went into my short-stack TBR in the Reading Room, and I picked it up soon afterwards. 

This book is like a collection of brief articles, each one delving into a different individual’s experience with living in London, and I found it fascinating. It covers a really broad array, as made plain right there on the cover: those who have always lived in London, those who have always wanted to, those who have found it fabulous and those who have found it less so (but, more often than not, it’s a mix of the good, the bad, and the ugly). 

I really enjoyed my experience with this book, which I definitely think was enhanced because I’d been there. Not that I’d seen everything referenced in the book by any means, but I’m sure what I read was more interesting and meaningful because of our trip. Though I’m not saying that you shouldn’t read this book if your only trips to London have been the ones in your dreams; I think it’s worth reading no matter what. 

I finished reading this today on the warm white sands of Gulf Shores, Alabama (not to rub it in if you’re currently somewhere more mundane and less relaxing). But it felt oddly incongruous to read about London on a beautiful sunny day. So, how fitting that, as I turned the last page, I saw that the clouds had rolled in. It reminded me of our time in London: our first two days there, the sun was shining and everyone was happy and I started to wonder if I’d been lied to my whole life. But on the third morning, when we got up and I opened the shutters of our hotel room to find low, grey clouds, I thought, Ah yes. This is what I have been expecting.