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Books set in London

115 replies

argyllherewecome · 25/02/2025 20:08

Needing a bit of a London fix, any suggestions for books set in London? Doesn't have to be a major part, just small references. Bonus points if it's a mews setting or somewhere quite nice.

OP posts:
TheBookShelf · 28/02/2025 00:00

Ballet Shoes - Noel Streatfeild.
Published in 1936 and set in the late 1920s. The Fossil girls live in a big house in the Cromwell Road not far from the V&A.

Various crime series by Anne Perry - Victorian London.

M V Hughes' 'London Child' memoirs - late Victorian.

The Raffles stories by E W Hornung - published from 1899 onwards. Many of them are set in Victorian/Edwardian London.

Dorothy L Sayers, some of the Lord Peter Wimsey books.

John Buchan; several of his thrillers are set, or partly set, in London. The Thirty Nine Steps starts in London with action then moving to Scotland.

BiggerBoat1 · 27/02/2025 21:16

Girl on the Train - Paula Hawkins

DrivingThePlot · 27/02/2025 21:08

Excellent Women - Barbara Pym
Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day - Winifred Watson
84 Charing Cross Road - Helene Hanff
Our Spoons Came From Woolworths - Barbara Comyns

tobee · 27/02/2025 01:59

Well there's the Agatha Christie short story Murder in the Mews. 😃

Definitely The Paying Guests. How about London Belongs to Me by Norman Collins? Or The Lonely Londoners by Sam Selvon?

Obviously plenty of Dickens especially A Christmas Carol but wrong time of year maybe.

The sequels to Diary of A Provincial Lady - The Provincial Lady Goes Further and The Provincial Lady in Wartime.

Strong Poison by Dorothy L Sayers.

Jeeves and Wooster stories often largely take place in London.

Love a London book!

Terpsichore · 27/02/2025 00:34

Iris Murdoch's Under the Net is a wonderful London novel.

Redshoeblueshoe · 26/02/2025 22:19

I've just started reading A Long Shadow by David Beckler. It's brilliant.

Neighneigh · 26/02/2025 22:16

The Life Class trilogy by Pat Barker is very good, it follows friends from art school through the first and second world wars and is mostly set in London. Good if you know Bloomsbury/ central London

Patterncarmen · 26/02/2025 22:12

Greenery Street by Denis Mackail. Written in the 1920s about a newlywed couple in London and delightful…Persephone Books publishes it.

Threewordseightletters · 26/02/2025 22:12

A Week in December- Sebastian Faulks; South of the River- Blake Morrison; Absolute Beginners - Colin MacInnes

Arran2024 · 26/02/2025 22:06

Bad Fruit by Ella King, set in Greenwich
The Wimbledon Poisoner by Nigel Williams (part of a trilogy)

Blackcountryexile · 26/02/2025 21:47

Between the Stops Sandi Tosvig
An Experiment in Love Hilary Mantel

Boodahh · 26/02/2025 21:11

Apple Tree Yard by Louise Doughty
The Slow Horses series
How to Kill your Family by Bella Mackie
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford

mismomary · 26/02/2025 21:08

64 Charing Cross Road. Simply wonderful. An exchange of letters about books.

nickatiara · 26/02/2025 21:00

Sorry, you're quite right!

JaninaDuszejko · 26/02/2025 20:56

nickatiara · 26/02/2025 14:01

The Outrun, switches between South London and the Scottish Highlands. And you can watch the film afterwards with Saoirse Ronan which has just come out.

It's not set in the Highlands, it's in Orkney.

nickatiara · 26/02/2025 14:02

nickatiara · 26/02/2025 14:01

The Outrun, switches between South London and the Scottish Highlands. And you can watch the film afterwards with Saoirse Ronan which has just come out.

(Don't watch it with her actually, watch it on your own - she's in it 🙃)

nickatiara · 26/02/2025 14:01

The Outrun, switches between South London and the Scottish Highlands. And you can watch the film afterwards with Saoirse Ronan which has just come out.

throwaway25 · 26/02/2025 13:59

London by Edward Rutherford

CrossPurposes · 26/02/2025 13:41

26a and Ordinary People by Diana Evans (contemporary)
Small Island by Andrea Levy (post war)
Old Baggage (twenties) and Their Finest Hour and a Half (second world war) by Lissa Evans

CraftyNavySeal · 26/02/2025 09:05

Another one for Rivers of London!

MintLindt · 26/02/2025 09:03

The Maeve Kerrigan series by Jane Casey are set in London.

JaninaDuszejko · 26/02/2025 07:56

CutFlowers · 25/02/2025 22:20

My Friends - Hiram Matar
Girl, Woman, Other - Bernadine Evaristo

My favourite parts of Girl, Woman, Other were the chapters in the northeast.

ChessieFL · 26/02/2025 06:36

Sherlock Holmes

MarjorieDanvers · 26/02/2025 02:29

‘Ordinary Thunderstorms’ by William Boyd

Every time I drive past the place he sleeps rough I think if I ever need to, that's where I’ll try first!

I love a bit of Pepys too - particularly listening to R4 dramatisation - very funny but not sure if it’s on sounds (why not! Bloody BBC!)

MyCatNamedCookingFat · 26/02/2025 01:37

The Dreaming Suburb by RF Delderfield
Small pleasures by Clare Chambers
The Heart of London by Monica Dickens