London is still the mother ship for Americans, many of whom share the opinion of its tousle-headed, bicycle-riding mayor – that indeed it’s the best city in the world. And as the capital takes center of the world stage with the 2012 Olympics, who better than Boris (as he is known) to convey how London became one of the most exciting and influential places on Earth?
Wearing his brilliance and erudition with characteristic wit, Boris narrates the story of his city as a kind of relay race of outsized characters, beginning with the days when “a bunch of pushy Italians” created Londinium. He passes the torch on down through a procession of the famous and infamous, the brilliant and the bizarre – from Hadrian to Shakespeare to Florence Nightingale to the Rolling Stones- illuminating with unforgettable clarity each figure and the era he or she inhabited. He also pauses to shine a light on places and developments that have contributed to the city’s incomparable vibrancy, from the flush toilet to the King James Bible. As wildly entertaining as it is informative, this is an irresistible account of the city and people that in large part shaped the world we know.
About Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson is the popular and internationally known mayor of London and the author of several previous books. He began his career as a journalist, working his way up to editor of The Spectator. He was then elected to the House of Commons and served there until he was elected mayor in 2008.
Editorial Review
On the eve of the 2012 Summer Olympics, the author provides a lively thematic guide to the city’s historical evolution as represented by the legacy of notable Londoners, ancient and modern, from the Romans who overran the city to the great statesman who staunchly defended it from attack, Winston Churchill. Johnson has served as mayor since 2008, previously the editor of The Spectator and thus a trained, amiable journalist. With an engaging, felicitous tone, the author obviously enjoys offering his account of what the English have done best, from spreading the good word in the form of the King James Bible to parliamentary democracy and habeas corpus to the marvels of the English language. Johnson pays tribute to numerous illustrious Londoners, some better known than others—e.g., the early avenger Boudica, the first in a tradition of powerful female leaders; a previous mayor, 15th-century financier Richard Whittington; a fabulously inventive, now-forgotten genius of the 17th century, Robert Hooke; eccentric civil libertarian John Wilkes; Samuel Johnson and his lexicographic wit; saintly nurses Florence Nightingale and Mary Seacole, who challenged notions of hygiene and ventilation in the treatment of disease; and W.T. Stead, inventor of tabloid journalism with his work on the Pall Mall Gazette in the mid 19th century. Along the way there are shorter bios of some incredibly important innovators and inventors, such as Sir John Harington, godson of Queen Elizabeth I and fashioner of the flush toilet of which she was so fond; Beau Brummel and his now-ubiquitous men’s suit; and Denis Johnson and his significant modifications on the bicycle in 19th-century London. – Kirkus Reviews
London’s Mayor On ‘The City That Made The World’
NPR Book Review – June 2, 2012 (Excerpt)
In just a few weeks, the world will descend on London for the Olympic Games.
But the world goes to London every day, according to Boris Johnson, the former journalist who has just been re-elected mayor of London. In his new book, Johnson says people don’t just visit the city, they’ve made their lives there for centuries now. It’s a city, Johnson writes, where national soccer teams from all over the world can show up and count on crowds of thousands of fans to support them.
Johnson, the mayor with scarecrow hair who bicycles around his town, has written a book that traces some of the London that may reside in all of us — from Shakespeare to Churchill, the business suit to the bicycle, the flush toilet, Keith Richards and Florence Nightingale.
His book is Johnson’s Life of London: The People Who Made the City That Made the World. And, as he tells Weekend Edition Saturday‘s Scott Simon from his home in London, he believes the city has a brand — but not one everyone might think of.
“I think one of the points of the book,” says Johnson, “was to make Londoners themselves aware quite how much of their landscape is due to foreign immigrants of one kind or another. Just upriver from where I am, I can see London Bridge — that was the site of the first bridge across the river. Who built London Bridge? It wasn’t Londoners. It was a bunch of pushy Italian immigrants from 43 A.D., the Romans, who founded this town. In other words, what I’m trying to say about London is that it’s been a magnet for talent for 2,000 years.” [Read the full article...]
THE LONDONDERRY AIR
Testament of an Ulster Gunman A Novel by Garrad Gawler
It all changed for Charles Cunningham, a Physics teacher at the local College of Technology in the County Derry town of Maddenstown, on a June afternoon in 1973 when a bomb exploded in his neighborhood. He answers an advertisement by the UDR, the Ulster Defence Regiment, but, in the time to come, he will experience the consequences of his decisions, and how his involvement complicates matters with family and friends, Protestants and Catholics alike, to an unexpected degree.
With “The Londonderry Air – Testament of an Ulster Gunman” Garrad Gawler describes in minute detail and with an astonishing level of authenticity not only the inner workings of the Ulster Defence Regiment, but also the activities of underground paramilitary groups of regular citizens who planned and carried out the assassination of suspected Republican terrorists in their neighborhood.
We are the only country that makes guns, including military-style assault weapons, available to anyone who wants to buy them. This is not freedom. It is a tyranny of death and destruction — a tyranny of which the National Rifle Association is proud. The Washington Post
