Imagined London: A Tour of the World's Greatest Fictional City (National Geographic Directions)

London looms large, in literature, in "real" life, and in the literary and cultural imagination. In this delightfully absorbing book, Quindlen, a former New York Times columnist, describes her first introduction to London-through books-and her second-on a book tour trip. She admits that she was fearful of shattering the magical image she held of London, and so put off a visit to the actual city for years. Only in her mid-forties did Quindlen finally make the trip, and she was relieved to discover that its charms and quirks were even better than she had imagined. The chapters are loosely connected, with witty gems that regular readers of Quindlen will expect. She alludes to the great writers who have lived in London, suggests out-of-the-way detours about the city, and reflects on the present-day capital of the United Kingdom. If a reader expects the author to provide sound-bite sidebars and details about where to eat and stay, he or she will be vastly disappointed and probably not make it beyond the first few pages. But if you've been to London and loved it, or if you have read Thackery and Dickens, Henry James and Monica Ali, you'll revel in this literary tour. Quindlen's rich narrative style will have you, like it did me, looking for airline tickets for another visit to this amazing city. Don't forget to pack this book along with anything by Dickens.

I thoroughly enjoyed this small tour of geographic and literary London. Having spent time there on several occasions the venues were all familiar and allowed me to relive some pleasant times. Quindlen is always readable; on any subject. On London, which she obviously loves, one feels a special connection. But, if I had not visited there, myself, I am not sure that reading it would have been so pleasurable.

As one who got into a lengthy discussion with a beefeater in the Tower about why Elizabeth I was most certainly NOT a man, I felt an instant kinship with Ms. Quindlen. I, too, was a voracious reader from early on, and London was always a special space in my imagination. I did get there a little sooner -- 1988 -- and was no less enthralled. Another writer, Isaak Dinesen, talks about being a traveler in the mind -- which I've always been -- and oviously, I'm in good company. This is a lovely (as the Brits say) book -- enjoy!

Imagined London is a wonderful love story. Anna Quindlen, who had visited London in her dreams for many years, made her first physical visit in 1995. She tells the story of that visit, and many subsequent ones, in this all too slim volume about the great city's many literary connections. This book reminds me of Helene Hanff's The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street in that it focuses on literary London, but like that book, Imagined London appeals on many levels. A visitor to London can use it as a walking tour guide, for example. Even those who will rarely or never visit the city will find the elegant writing and deft descriptions are to be treasured. My only complaint about Imagined London is that it is far too short! Had it been two or even three times as long, I would still savor every word!

Nothing could be finer than reading a fine book by a fine writer writing about a fine city of fine writers . . . . get my drift? . . . . and this book is a literary delight by an exceptionally fine former New York Times columnist. Of course, it's not quite like being there. As Quindlen states, "Perhaps in a small way he wanted to drive home what is always a valuable lesson, when we insist on learning the world through books: that accuracy and truth are sometimes quite different things." True enough, I suppose. But, on a personal basis and having once visited London myself, her book brings back an "accuracy and truth" that was much better than my memories of London. Anyone reading this is obviously a literate person; on that basis, Quindlen offers a fine tour of the literary highlights of one of the world's great cities. Why is London great? She says, "A third of London . . . is grass or gardens." She appreciates the people, places, writers and words of London and how they came to hold such a powerful place in literature. In a world where Quarter Pounders with Cheese and Gap jeans are as ubiquitous as Burberrys and Harris Tweeds, London is distinctive. New York, like Phoenix and many American cities, was planned with a mathematical rigour that is as user-friendly as a straight jacket. If New York streets are a Mondrian painting, and Phoenix a Rorschach cookie-cutter test, then London is the genius of a Picasso. London just grew, and nothing from the collapse of Londinium to the Great Fire of 1666 to the Blitz of World War II has persuaded Londoners to destroy its human appeal. A city this good deserves an author with the sensitivity and insight and perception of Quindlen; every reader of this book will be delighted she turned her loquacious talents to lovely London and its wonderful charms, its quirks and oddities and normalities and routines which create a city worth remembering. Quindlen is truly an author worth reading.