London Orbital: A Walk Around the M25 - Hardcover

Sinclair, Iain

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1862075476 ISBN 13: 9781862075474

Publisher: Granta Books, 2002

Synopsis

In this volume Iain Sinclair sets out to map the vast stretch of urban settlement outside London bounded by the M25. His long journeys - from the Lea Valley to Uxbridge, from Staines to South Mimms - are flanked by the black clouds of smoke from burning carcasses as the foot and mouth panic takes hold. Here he uncovers a history of forgotten villages, suburban utopias and hellish asylums, now transformed into upmarket housing, all the while walking a disappearing landscape, as the countryside is engulfed by commerce.

About this title

Review:

One might be forgiven for thinking that the only thing more boring than spending a year walking around the M25 would be reading a large book about walking around the M25. Yet Iain Sinclair's London Orbital is a fascinating and curiously haunting read. Part of the reason is that Sinclair brings to the project an immense literary talent, an intense and lifelong interest in the history of London and some extremely interesting travelling companions.

The walk was taken in several stages, from Waltham Abbey to Shenley, Abbots Langley to Staines, Staines to Epsom and Epsom to Westerham before going on to Dartford, the river and Carfax and arriving back at Waltham Abbey. Each stage fills a chapter and the reader is advised to take a leaf out of Sinclair's own book by taking one stage, one chapter at a time. This is a large book of 450-odd pages and by the time the journey gets under way-–about 60 pages in--even Sinclair's dazzling prose is not enough to offset the gloomy prospect of taking a second-hand trip around the London Orbital. And yet after the first trip one finds oneself being sucked in and thinking about some of the grey, ugly images, or being angered by the grasping and philistine approach of developers and copywriters and the cynicism and hypocrisy of government.

The history of London has long been Sinclair's great passion but he populates this strange excursion with flesh-and-blood people as well as literary and mythic figures: there's John Clare watching Byron's funeral procession before embarking on his epic three-day journey back to Northborough, "chewing tobacco and gnawing grass torn up from the roadside"; then there are tales of Dracula, of lost lunatic asylums, of passionate political activists crying out against toxic land and of meetings with ex-members of London's criminal underworld.

London Orbital gets under the skin. What looks at first like a dull and deeply unappealing journey is actually a multi-layered, lyrical, ugly, mythical, engaged and engaging excursion from the present into the past and back again. --Larry Brown

Review:

'throughout this great...strange book, Sinclair’s prose is of an Elizabethan richness, giddy with information, by turns gritty and lyrical' -- Ian Thomson, Sunday Times

‘An absolute joy. This unashamedly intellectual traveller uncovers a rich history whose traces are rapidly being wiped from the landscape' -- The Times (Play)

‘It is the pilgrimage for our times...every sentence rewards your attention’ -- Tim Adams, Observer

‘Sinclair’s recent work represents some of the most important in contemporary English letters' -- Will Self, New Statesman

‘The writing is lucid, accessible, inventive and witty. Get your hiking boots...if only for a walk...to the bookshop' -- Nicholas Royle, Independent

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1862075476
• ISBN 13: 9781862075474
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 500