London Belongs to Me (Penguin Modern Classics)

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At the end of the film, Percy's supporters march through the rain to the Houses of Parliament, only to discover just before their arrival that clemency has already been granted.

Well, how about Norman Collins – as well as author of 16 novels, he was controller of television at the BBC, and co-founder of independent television in the UK. Percy Boon is a car mechanic and the closest we come to anything vaguely proletarian, but he is saved by the fact that he is as apolitical as it is possible to be: an aspiration to petty crime being arguably the classic working class Tory occupation (the Kray twins were members of the Bethnal Green Conservative Association).At its best the book is a directed but unforced tour of aspects of British – English – culture during wartime: a world of “chimney pots and telegraph wires”, of Bakelite and green baize, of séances and boxing matches (“The Tiger entered the ring in his celebrated striped dressing gown, allowed his seconds – two bullet-headed thugs like escaped convicts – to disrobe him as though he were too well-bred to do that kind of thing for himself, and stood there, like a cockerel, turning himself about for the people to admire him”), and of Lyons’ Corner Houses and miserable London weather, where “it was as though someone had deliberately smeared a wet dirty cloth across the sky”. The cast included Derek Farr as Mr Josser, Madge Ryan as Mrs Vizzard and Patricia Hayes as Connie Coke. Mr Josser’s participation in the South London Parliament reflects the helplessness of the wider body politic in the face of Nazi aggression and expansionism. Initially, the only presence is through the character of Otto Hapfel, an incompetent Nazi representative in London, but later, as the Blitz beckons, the war fills every corner of the pages. One of my favourites with a cast of characters that creep back into my conscience at the most random of times.

Minor issues present such as mild cracking, inscriptions, inserts, light foxing, tanning and thumb marking.You will not find it on a map, but there would be no prizes for working out that Collins intended it to be located in the quadrant of streets bounded by Kennington Park Road, Camberwell New Road, and Walworth Road, an area which, despite its refined obscurity, holds a unique literary pedigree for it was right across the road (in the ‘Holland Grove beat’) that Conan Doyle set the scene of Sherlock Holmes’s first appearance (the murder of Enoch J Drebber in A Study In Scarlet). Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages. The reason it caught my interest then, as I remember it, it was all about a big house in London and the stories of the various tenants who lived in it.

The novel’s sense of period and place is acute on London particular: the bustle and cosiness of the crowded City pubs at five o’clock on a winter’s day; the dreary boneshaking tram ride home to Kennington, via the Embankment and Lambeth; the invisible fault line of social status between the pretentious Smyths and the down-to-earth Jossers. I have Saramago’s Blindness here, but like you I am discouraged by the long sentences and unbroken paragraphs, though others tell me he’s gripping once you attune yourself to his pace. However, life begins to change for the inhabitants of Dulcimer Street as Doris moves out, a mysterious Mr Squales moves into the spare room in Mrs Vizzard’s basement, Percy’s criminal doings catch up with him, and the war starts to become an ever likelier possibility. Two of my personal favourites are a 1958 edition of Zola’s ‘The Beast in Man’ which boasts the most grotesque and ineptly painted image I’ve ever seen. The second world war looms as each of the varied and memorable characters contend with their own lives and preoccupations.The independent-minded quarterly magazine that combines good looks, good writing and a personal approach. After a spell in publishing (he was Deputy Chairman of Victor Gollancz for seven years), he joined the BBC. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. The Hogarth Press where I’m working, is in the heart of the literary world, with authors coming in all the time.

The blackouts are vividly presented (“it had a sinister, almost solid, quality of its own, this blackout, so that you felt you had to carve your way through it, scraping and scooping out a passage as you went along”) and when Collins emphasises the carry-on attitude of Londoners during the war, it seems not so much heroic as dutiful (“[Mr Josser] had something else to think about. These diversely ordinary people living at the same address, the other people whose lives they touch, all with their different desires and motives, It's a terrific read for an historical novel. From the available clues it is clear that both Grosvenor Terrace and John Ruskin Street might fit the bill. And a prize of nothing but kudos to the first person to name another Penguin Modern Classic that has stooped to having a quote on the cover.There was also a six-part television series in 1977, again with a roster of the best of British, including a young Trevor Eve. Also known as Dulcimer Street, Norman Collins's London Belongs to Me is a Dickensian romp through working-class London on the eve of the Second World War. But somehow or other it remains London, with the buses that cruise up Park Lane twinkling through the railings, and the air filled with the roar and rustle of innumerable wheels. Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin.