Picard has an unerring eye for picking out the most vivid phrase, the most apt memory or pithiest description from the wealth of contemporary information that exists - Ruth Cowen * Sunday Express * Publisher: Orion Publishing Co ISBN: 9781842127292 Number of pages: 384 Weight: 314 g Dimensions: 196 x 133 x 28 mm MEDIA REVIEWSĪt last, a riveting history book with no wars, few dates and minimal references to the King. While brilliantly recording the strangeness and individuality of the past, Dr Johnson's London continually reminds us of parallels with the present day. The book spans the years 1740 to 1770, starting when the gin craze was gaining ground and ending when the east coast of America was still British. Crime, from pickpockets to highwaymen, was rife, prisons were poisonous and law-enforcement rudimentary.ĭr Johnson's London is the result of the author's passionate interest in the practical details of the everyday life of our ancestors: the streets, houses and gardens cooking, housework, laundry and shopping clothes and cosmetics medicine, sex, hobbies, education and etiquette. Executions were rated one of the best amusements, but there was bullock-hunting and cock-fighting too.
The opulence of the rich and the comfort of the 'middling' sort contrasted sharply with the back-breaking labour and pitiful wages of the poor. When Dr Johnson published his great Dictionary in 1755, London was the biggest city in Europe. 'Brings the age's tortuous splendours and profound murkiness vividly to life' Observer 'A Baedeker of the past, absorbing and revealing in equal measure' Peter Ackroyd
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