{"product_id":"victorian-london-9780753820902","title":"Victorian London","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom rag-gatherers to royalty, from fish knives to Freemasons: everyday life in Victorian London.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLike its acclaimed companion volumes, \u003ci\u003eElizabeth''s London\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eRestoration London \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eDr Johnson''s London\u003c\/i\u003e, this book is the product of the author''s passionate interest in the realities of everyday life so often left out of history books. This period of mid Victorian London covers a huge span: \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eVictoria''s wedding and the place of the royals in popular esteem; how the very poor lived, the underworld, prostitution, crime, prisons and transportation; the public utilities - Bazalgette on sewers and road design, Chadwick on pollution and sanitation; private charities - Peabody, Burdett Coutts - and workhouses; new terraced housing and transport, trains, omnibuses and the Underground; furniture and decor; families and the position of women; the prosperous middle classes and their new shops, such as Peter Jones and Harrods; entertaining and servants, foo\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI was delighted, as usual, by Liza Picard's \u003ci\u003eVictorian London\u003c\/i\u003e, the fourth of her grand series on life in the capital -- Jan Morris * OBSERVER *\u003cbr\u003eThis book is a feast of tit-bits, bringing 19th-century London to life piecemeal with the accumulation of facts ... a valuable addition to the literature of London -- Jad Adams * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *\u003cbr\u003eWhether she is describing the music halls, such as the Alhambra in Leicester Square, or the criminal underworld, or the foundation of London University, or the lives of the costermongers, or the expansion of the middle-class suburbs, she never loses her eye for the telling detail. Reading her book is like gazing at one of those energetic, crowded canvases by the Victorian painter William Powel Frith, who brought the age to life through a multiplicity of detail -- A. N. Wilson * EVENING STANDARD *\u003cbr\u003eThe glories of Picard's magpie style are immediately apparent. She paints a picture with deft, sure strokes, then finds the perfect quotation -- Judith Flanders * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *\u003cbr\u003eShe cannot be denied her bid for the heavyweight crown. She writes the old history, descriptive and unanalytical, painted in exhilarating colours -- Simon Jenkins * SUNDAY TIMES *\u003cbr\u003eShe is an engaging companion, always wondering out loud about the sort of questions which you've asked yourself ... an enjoyable book -- Philip Hensher * SPECTATOR *\u003cbr\u003eThus the book proceeds, by typifying anecdotes, which are well chosen and impeccably annotated, and all linked together by Picard's untroubling, readable prose -- Adam Newey * GUARDIAN *\u003cbr\u003eLiza Picard's \u003ci\u003eVictorian London \u003c\/i\u003eis a mine of information and very readable -- Tony Benn\u003cbr\u003eA wonderful achievement -- Claire Tomalin\u003cbr\u003eThis is a comprehensive history by anecdote, so the enlightening facts come thick and fast, from the suggestion that Queen Victoria had a slight German accent to the idea that linoleum is best washed with milk. And while there is certainly no pretence at some grand narrative, there is a genuine sense of time and place. It makes it a book to pick at - where else could one find out about velocipedes, costermongers and the \"Monster School\"? - but it's also one that adds incalculable depth to a walk round the capital. From houses to cemeteries, Picard enforces the idea that history really is all around us * SUNDAY TELEGRAPH *\u003cbr\u003eHer vivid panorama of London between 1840 and 1870 -- Michael Leapman * INDEPENDENT *\u003cbr\u003ePicard enjoys recounting the gruesome daily mechanics of living in what Cobbett described as \"the great wen\" -- Tristram Hunt * NEW STATESMAN *\u003cbr\u003eVividness is the book's aim, and this is achieved splendidly * ECONOMIST *\u003cbr\u003eA highly readable account of nineteenth-century London... Picard's book is a mine of information told with great enthusiasm and passion. * EXPRESS (7\/7\/06) *\u003cbr\u003eThis is a comprehensive history by anecdote, so the enlightening facts come thick and fast... Picard enforces the idea that history really is all around us. * TELEGRAPH (8\/7\/06) *\u003cbr\u003eHer survey of Victorian London is as enjoyably wide-ranging as her previous volumes, and her curiosity about apparent trivia resurrects the realities of the past more successfully than many more solemn works of social and political analysis do. * SUNDAY TIMES (30\/7\/06) *\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Orion Publishing Co","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48737056424279,"sku":"9780753820902","price":13.49,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9780753820902.jpg?v=1723810939","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/victorian-london-9780753820902","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}