Author Archives: Our Town Books

Venice may be the most romantic city in the world; Paris the most beautiful; New York the most everything else. But, for this lover of Shakespeare’s language, London is the city with the most to offer.

Where else can you hear the Queen’s English–spoken by the Queen herself–echoing back from across the river with a resoundingly defiant, “Oi!”? I wonder, in the unlikely event Elizabeth II were in conversation with Keith Richards, whether or not an interpreter might be required. Such is the pageant of present day London, where “once below a time,” (Dylan Thomas) the language of Horace and Ovid was spoken on the newly forged streets of Empire, on the north bank of the Thames. All this long before the British Empire.

From those times of Londinium to these of the Millenium Bridge, there spans an epic worthy of Virgil. And while many an author has attempted such an august tome–Peter Ackroyd comes to mind–few, if any, poets have taken on such a daunting–one might say, Virgilian–task.

Just think, “London: A History in Verse.” Wouldn’t that be grand? Well, yes, it would be. In fact it is. For, such a book now exists. And, just in time for the holidays. But don’t go thinking of stuffing some unraveling stocking with it. I mean it weighs a fair amount. After all, it is an account of a two thousand year-old city. So if, like me, you, or someone you know, is a poetry-loving anglophile, this is the perfect gift–better than the keys to a new Land Rover. Continue reading →