Happy Holidays friends, I hope you are celebrating this time of year exactly the way you like to – whether you actually celebrate Christmas or Hanukah, or just celebrate a few days off from work to gather with the people you love (like me!)
One of the things I do love about this time of year (other than the presents, which yes, despite the lack of religious/cultural tradition, I partake in) is Boxing Day shopping.
Well, Chapters was having a 30% off hardcover sale, and look at what I brought home!
If you know a little about this series I am writing, you know it is based in 1930s London, England, making this book an awesome research resource for both my facts and imagination.
In my head, Portia Adams has walked these streets for over a year now (when I started writing about her) and the internet and the library have been my primary sources for her world. This is a beautiful book, with over 500 images from the former London County Council archive of photographs, many of which were unpublished until now.
I will be posting images from the book from time to time and for sure quoting from it in this blog (all credit to Philip Davies, and I hope he sells lots of books – Amazon.com link here!)
I’m 25 pages in and I have some fantastic ideas for the setting of my next crime-scene – so stay tuned my friends, and let me know about your great Boxing Day finds in the comments below!
I’ll need something like that when I get around to writing my WWII series.
Ooh, will keep my eye out for you Rami.
thanks! i should probably mention it takes place mostly in Germany, though.
How good is the coverage of the period 1916-1921 in “Lost London”? Thanks!
So far, it looks pretty amazing, though I kind of wish it were divided by year or progressed in a linear fashion. It is instead laid out by neighborhoods, which actually works for me, because I can look up streets I am writing about and really see what they look like, but makes it hard to fully answer your question. A LOT of the photos seem to be from one project to document the buildings that were being knocked down in 1909, so that is the year that has the most images.
Ohhh, I’ve been wanting that book for a while now. I hope it’s helpful to you.
[…] piece of a research is a gorgeous hard-cover book I treated myself to (on sale!) called ‘Lost London’ by Philip Davies. I like opening it and flipping through the photos just to set the scene in my […]