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Usually ships in 1 business days | | | | | | Written by the expert guides of London Walks, London’s oldest, most acclaimed walking tour company, this collection includes local insight and knowledge that can only be gained through years of tour-leading experience. These theme-based walks offer something for everyone, whether a history buff, a fan of the paranormal, or those looking for fun off the beaten path. The walks include Sinister London, focusing on haunted London and Jack the Ripper; Literary London, from Shakespeare to Dickens; Public Houses, showcasing the old pubs of Soho; and a Mystery and Secrets walk exploring the city's hidden past. Perfect for tourists who want to experience London life beyond Trafalgar Square as well as for Londoners eager to step off the Circle Line and discover the secrets on their own doorstep, this guide offers a fascinating glimpse into the capital's rich history. With photos, maps, and illustrations to bring the stories to life, London Stories is for those who love London, written by those who know it best.
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| | Product Details | | Author: | David Tucker | | Paperback: | 256 pages | | Publisher: | Virgin Books | | Publication Date: | April 01, 2009 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0753515059 | | Product Width: | 1.31 centimeters | | Product Height: | 1.87 centimeters | | Product Weight: | 0.01 pounds | | Package Length: | 7.56 inches | | Package Width: | 5.12 inches | | Package Height: | 0.87 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.62 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 7 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 7 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 found the following review helpful:
a different sort of travel guide Jul 07, 2009
By hmf22
This collection of short, spirited essays is a collaborative venture by seventeen guides at London Walks, a renowned and award-winning walking tour firm. As David Tucker writes in the introduction, London Stories aspires to be "something different from the bog-standard walking-tour guidebook" (4). Each themed chapter contains a sidebar with suggestions about the most atmospheric cafe, pub, churchyard, or parkbench to sit in or on while reading it, and some chapters contain maps as well. The Jack the Ripper chapter, for example, will help you locate the site at which each of the Ripper's victims was found, even though the street scene has changed slightly in the intervening years.
London Stories is London Walks' first publishing venture, and it shows. The essays are uneven in quality; the book badly needed some professional editing to eliminate improper puncutation, sentence fragments, and the cloying hyperbolic prose that mars some otherwise interesting chapters. Some essays are rich in information and purposeful in their storytelling; others jump around from anecdote to anecdote without giving a comprehensive sense of the neighborhood on which they focus. Some chapters have helpful footnotes, with suggestions for further reading. Some chapters needed footnotes and didn't get them.
That said, I'm still glad I bought this book, and I would definitely recommend it to the literate London tourist. At just over $10, it offers excellent value; small and light, it fits easily in a backpack or even a large purse for a day of roaming about the city. Chapters such as "The Origins of London" and "The Old Palace Quarter" gave me fresh insights into familiar neighborhoods, and the "Where to Read This" suggestions are often excellent. London Stories is a book I'll keep to read at home long after my vacation is over and will take with me on future trips.
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
 London Stories: A Happy Customer Aug 17, 2010
By LisaBme
London Stories
Having experienced five London Walks® within the last half week, I find myself to compelled to comment on London Stories, compiled by David Tucker and contributed to by many of the guides who shepherd folks through the streets and museums of London.
I purchased the book immediately, during my first London Walk in Old Westminster. Here is how I have used it: I read the section related to that days walk before I take the walk. Then, I take the guided walk. Afterwards, that same evening, I re-read the chapter. Then I journal a bit about my own experience and impressions. Here is what I think about the book:
London Stories is the perfect accompaniment to a visit to London and it's surrounding areas. The reason it is perfect is that it is a fun, friendly-reading, commentary about the history and people of London. Yes, it is about architecture and art, and yes, it's about the royal succession and Norman and Saxon civilisation. However, the way in which this witty, warm presentation of London stories is transmitted is in familiar, easily grasped language that is part of today's oral tradition. What I mean by that is that no matter what we try to do, we will be looking at historical London through our 2010 lens. A writing style, and a guided tour commentary that does not pull us in with contemporary language and everyday points of reference will not be intimately experienced and remembered. I participated in three of David's tours: Old Westminster, Old Kensington, and the peak experience, Old Hampstead Village. His stories, jokes, humour, and what is a clear respect and reverence for the history of London is fabulously compelling. Both on the tours and in reading the book, I felt pulled into time and place through something of budding intimate knowledge of the area. I found myself thinking about the phrase "tone poem." The tour and the written commentary set an overall picture of the tone of the times and places being discussed. It invoked a pervading atmosphere in which an attitude about imagination achieves primacy. I am less interested by the facts and more by the tone and quality of an experience, and both London Walks® and London Stories does for me what Debussy's Cathedrale Engloutie does for classical pianists: it sets the mist, it creates the context in which the facts, the "notes" of the experience play out. Violà, you are there...
By the way, I'm not suggesting that I have not learned any facts. I'm claiming to have learned then better because London Walks and London Stories, puts them in context.
I also took two tours with Molly: the Victoria and Albert Museum Tour, and The Best
Tour Ever: the National Gallery. Molly is an extraordinary art historian and her ability to set what we saw into historical context and stylistic progression was outstanding. She hit us with sweeping concepts that reflect the paradigm shifts that characterise art, politics, literature, and religion. How she navigated us through the National Galley in what was a very crowded afternoon, I'll never know. She stayed on track, remained focused but flexible enough to entertain participants' individual queries, and didn't lose anyone! How she didn't have a nervous breakdown, I'll never know either, but I suspect it's because her expertise and passion for the art is her guiding star ... or maybe she just has calm genes.
In short, I could not more highly recommend the book and the tours. Both transmit the sense and aura of London, it's history and art, through a venue that is intimately tied to our most compelling form of communication: the oral narrative.
P.S. Next summer I'll be back to take more of the tours and probably repeat some with friends and family. In the meantime, I'll be brushing up on my Dickens and Jack the Ripper. I'll use London Walks and London Stories as my reference for these reading selections -- for the fun of it!
3 of 3 found the following review helpful:
An Essential London Guide Nov 27, 2009
By Bridgerov
My husband and I have been on several of the London Walks [...]. The guides are personable and entertaining as well as being extremely knowledgable on their subject. This book is not a substitute for London Walks; rather, it is a treasure trove of fascinating bits of information on several locations in London, even more stories behind the story, etc.
I would recommend this book to everyone going to London and everyone who has already been to London. You will miss so much of the true flavor of London if you don't include London Walks on your itinerary. And between London Walks, take out this book, set a London street map beside it, and read even more about this amazing, historical city that has been around since long before the New World was even a flicker in anyone's imagination.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
LOVE it! Dec 27, 2010
By Cookie
Whether or not you've actually been on a "London Walks" tour... you will LOVE this book! Just like the tours, the chapters in this book are choc-full of wonderful facts and anecdotes. I admit that I'm an aglophile... but I think this book is great for anyone who plans to visit the city, has already spent time there, or just wants to learn much more about London from ancient times to present day. I was also pleased to find that the material wasn't a rehash of what I'd already heard on some of the tours. Along those same lines, I also didn't feel like the book was a bait-n-switch to get folks to sign up for London Walks. No, no, no... I consider this book a great read in and of itself. Hopefully I'll make it back to London again soon so I can explore even more. Cheers!
 Walk away from this one. Jan 04, 2012
By arrowzip
"phil"
While the actual London Walks (I've taken many) are unique, insightful and zesty, this book is a completely banal offering of cut-and-paste information and a total bore. I don't write many reviews, but I want to warn any lover of London Walks that if you are looking for the same kind of information you get on a London Walk -- it isn't in this book. I wish I had read "Opinionated Texan's" review before I ordered. He nailed it.
See all 7 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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