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Original poster

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:
HauntedBungalow · 26/02/2025 00:38

London Fields!

musicalfrog · 26/02/2025 00:18

Love Lessons by Joan Wyndham. A real life wartime diary set in Chelsea.

It's so easy to lose yourself in that world, with all the evocative descriptions of the places and people in her life at that time. Really recommend.

SheilaFentiman · 26/02/2025 00:11

The first Rivers of London book is 99p on kindle at the moment

ShrubRose · 25/02/2025 23:40

Louise Candlish, The Other Passenger.
I had the e-audio book, read by Steven Mackintosh.
Great London atmosphere, twisty story.

Longlist · 25/02/2025 23:03

101 Dalmations- feeling nostalgic Smile

cheapskatemum · 25/02/2025 22:46

Bleak House & Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

Shoezembagsforever · 25/02/2025 22:45

Nitgel · 25/02/2025 20:38

Not fiction but London Made Us by robert elms is the definitive london book

This sounds great - thanks will check it out!

MaggieBsBoat · 25/02/2025 22:28

Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky by Patrick Hamilton
Crimson Petal and the White by Michel Faber

Anything by Dickens
Quincunx by Charles Palliser

SheilaFentiman · 25/02/2025 22:25

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy has a lot of scenes in London.

CutFlowers · 25/02/2025 22:20

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

UsernameChange1675 · 25/02/2025 21:15

Sarah Painter Crow family
London Belongs to us Sarra Manning
Kate Griffin Blue Electric Angels

PermanentTemporary · 25/02/2025 21:06

Brick Lane by Monica Ali.

QueMaTeteFleurisse · 25/02/2025 21:04

I second
Caledonia Road
Capital

also
The Children Act

SkaneTos · 25/02/2025 21:03

Yes, I agree with a previous poster, many books by Nick Hornby are set in London.

"High Fidelity"
"About A Boy"
"A Long Way Down"
"Funny Girl"

AelitaQueenofMars · 25/02/2025 20:59

SoloSofa24 · 25/02/2025 20:56

Oh yes, another must-read is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor.

Wonderful book!

SoloSofa24 · 25/02/2025 20:58

A Week in December - Sebastian Faulks

SoloSofa24 · 25/02/2025 20:56

Oh yes, another must-read is Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont by Elizabeth Taylor.

itsmondayyy · 25/02/2025 20:55

A lot of Zadie Smith novels

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/02/2025 20:50

Oh yes, and A Dance to the Music of Time - series of 12 novels by Anthony Powell. Lots of it set in London. They were written between about 1950 and 1976 or so and cover the lifetime of a man born in around 1905 and all the people he meets up to the mid 1970s.

MissRoseDurward · 25/02/2025 20:48

Pepys' Diary

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 25/02/2025 20:48

Second the suggestion of Dickens. Bleak House, Little Dorrit and Our Mutual Friend are all very evocative of 19th century London.

Also, Quincunx by Charles Palliser. A 20th century novel in the style of a 19th century one. Much of it set in London.

SoloSofa24 · 25/02/2025 20:44

Capital - John Lanchester
Caledonian Road - Andrew O'Hagan
Saturday - Ian McKewan
Free Love - Tessa Hadley
Happiness - Aminatta Forna
On Hampstead Heath - Marika Cobbold
Her Fearful Symmetry - Audrey Niffeneger
Towards the End of the Morning - Michael Frayn
A Landing on the Sun - Michael Frayn
Old Baggage - Lissa Evans

AelitaQueenofMars · 25/02/2025 20:44

You need some Elizabeth Bowen - her London novels are always set somewhere’nice’.

deeplybaffled · 25/02/2025 20:43

Sherlock Holmes?
Anne Perry Inspector Pitt/ William Monk series for Victorian London
Creed by James Herbert if you fancy some horror!
Paddington😂

AlmanbyRoadtrip · 25/02/2025 20:41

Christopher Fowler’s Bryant And May series of detective novels. Packed with London history.