United Kingdom Books

With well over eight hundred pages, MLA's "Literary Research Guide" is a complete and comprehensive guide for researchers who study literature. This new fifth edition boasts over 1,000 entries, which inform readers about countless books and other pieces of written media. Also sporting new chapters on cultural studies, "Literary Research Guide" leaves out little on every item discussed. An absolute must for community library reference collections focusing on literary studies, and highly recommended for college libraries as well.

Harner's most recent edition is the "bible" for those studying literature and/or related disciplines. An absolute must-have for graduate students in literature, women's studies, ethnic studies, and other textually-based disciplines.

I just received this today and am pleased with it. The size is perfect for tucking in a jacket pocket or a backpack. it has a small fold out map of each area of London and a tube map in the back. I've been to London several times and know it fairly well, but I find I always need a map to help me remember where my fave spots are. This is an excellent book for those who have been to London and don't want to carry a big, noticeable guide book around. Or you could buy this to supplement a guide book. Read the guide book in your room, and then take this one with you when you go out. You can't beat it for the price!

This "little black book" is perfect to use for seeing the best sights in London. It divides the city into areas with a fold-out map for each; it highlights the most important sights to see in each area, marks them on the map and even adds shopping and dining tips. Small enough to drop in your bag but very informative.

This is an excellent book that does exactly what it promises, gives you some pleasant walks around London interspersed with relaxing pub breaks. Be sure to order half pints, though, or you may have trouble walking back to your hotel.

Along with Rick Steves' London Guide, the CAMRA Good Beer Guide, & a London A To Z street guide, this book will always be on my "Must Bring" list for the Metrop. 15+ walking tours makes for plenty of exercise, whether walking, sightseeing, or my personal fave, performing pint curls. I looked all over London before finding it at Stanfords(a great travel bookshop) between Covent Garden & Charing Cross Rd., as this was not available on Amazon. Now it is, & your travels to London are the better for it. One tip: Mr. Bruning's tours all start at a given point(don't they all?). By using multimap.co.uk I did my own tours, by setting the tours from postcode to postcode, so after an afternoon at the British Museum, I was itinerized from there(actually, beginning at the Museum Tavern pub across the street) to Soho, to Picadilly. Unfortunately, my local is listed here, but that's the bad news. The good news is it gets the recognition it deserves, and no, I'm not going to tell you. Find your own, you'll be glad you did, and you'll be glad you got this great little book. You can check out Ted Bruning on FLN's Thirsty Traveler show, also. He starts their tour at the Market Porter in SE1. I highly recommend that pub, and this book. Cheers!

A refreshingly lively look at middle-class life in Victorian London. Particularly good on education and travel. Ought to be reprinted!

Mary Hughes (born Mary Thomas) published these books (originally a trilogy) in the 1930's, reminiscing about her childhood, early adulthood, and early married life. The books are remarkable: detailed, thoughtful, poignant when tragedy intrudes, but never sentimental; sharp, witty, affectionate and truly insightful.

Hughes's family was middle class, so that being poor, for her, meant being barely able to afford to go to school, rather than work. They usually had servants, though only one or two. All four older boys are intelligent, interesting people, though Mary claims only one of them as "clever". Yet it's clear from the first volume that they were all lovers of literature, art, and intelligent conversation, and as Mary grew up the youngest in such a household she not unnaturally grew to love the same things, despite lacking a formal education until she was eleven.

Her stories span all of life, from schooldays and children's games in the first book, to married life and heartbreaking tragedy in the last. She visits America to attend an educational conference at the Chicago World's fair in the early 1890's; and sees Washington, Montreal and Boston, too. She visits Cornwall and Wales, and of course there are many, many stories of London and London life. There is an enormous amount of detail here, loving told and a delight to read. This is the best kind of history to read -- true and faithful to the facts but more interesting than almost any novel could be.

Strongly recommended. If you're hesitating, I recommend at least the first volume, which you can buy separately here on Amazon; though I feel sure you'll want the other two when you've read that one.

Great for people who have "done" the big sights and are looking for something more. She arranges the book into typical themes--like Legal London, Literary London, or Romantic London, for example--and sets up an itinerary covering three days of things to do under each theme, including places to eat and evening activities. She doesn't pack each day so full that you feel rushed.

Ruth Humleker writes like a friend who has been to a place and can tell you the 'insider's' scoop on what to see and do. She divides the book into themes -- Royal London, Legal London, Romantic London, etc., providing a good mix of the 'standard sights' as well as new ideas for people who have been to London before. Her tips on tickets, restaurants, and tourist attractions are up-to-date and useful. Her itineraries are easy to follow and varied. Readers will have no trouble mixing and matching a day from one theme with one from another. As a result, the reader remains 'in-charge' while being provided guidance in creating a memorable trip. There are many travel books available -- this one is unique and will be a welcome addition to any traveler's bookshelf.

This little map folds up small enough to fit in your back pocket. It is laminated & will hold up to wear. For a such a small map it has LOTS of information on it. They have filled every inch with useful tidbits, sights, day trips, facts, etc. A smaller map on the back shows outside the city & a small undergroud map. Great tourist map, easy to read & easy to carry.

I've used these maps for years for different cities throughout the world. They work great. They fold down small enough to easily pack in your pocket but still have enough detail to get you around to most addresses. They also list major hotels, major shopping centers, churches and other points of interest which is very helpful as a tourist if you're staying in a larger hotel. They also have a subway map of the city and the subway stops and which lines are served are clearly shown on the city map plus a close approximation of where the entrance/exits are for the subways. They're very durable don't get destroyed by being stuffed into your pockets.

Artsy black & white pics show London street scenes in the first (small) section. Then the large sections of excellent color photography illustrate a variety of interiors, then decorating details.

Most of the space is given to the pictorial, as befits a book on how things look; what little trilingual (English-French-German) text exists is poetically descriptive.

Styles represented tend toward the spare and eclectic - we're not talking about conspicuous consumption or Martha wannabes here - probably "urban bohemian" is the general trend. Architectural details are proudly and blatantly incorporated into the overall scheme of things... It's a work well worth inclusion in your library

This book is an excellent viewbook if you want to get a taste of contemporary London interiors. It has very modern, a bit more classic and very simple interiors as well. There is very little text in the book, but the photos are all full page and very well made, high quality. A fun book to flip through and get inspiration from!

Well first off, it's TWENTY walks not eight! Either way, I can't rave enough about this book. I bought it as a Mother's Day gift, and was leafing through it waiting for the mircrowave to bing, and have now read it cover to cover TWICE: first for the little boxed tidbitty things on each page, all the human interest details, and then for the rest of it, which turned out to be ALL human interest stuff. It's written about things you'd really want to KNOW, like how people felt and how they survived and how things are pronounced, and where the bathrooms are. It made me think how much dignity Londoners had, and how brave they were. I wasn't even planning to go to London and I still found the book fascinating. I guess that'd be my only complaint, actually. Now I want to go but I can't afford to! I'm writing this review because I just signed on to amazon to buy a copy for myself (not as a gift this time!), and thought I'd spread the word. Enjoy!!

I took this book w/ me to London last summer and spent time on some of the walks the author suggests. I wish I had had time to do them all as I found her guidebook to be an excellent source, highly enjoyable, lots of side notes and comments, with good maps.

When I returned I recommended it to a professor who was going over to teach for the fall semester. He reported that he and his wife thoroughly enjoyed it as well. So, if you're a history buff, WW II or not, you'll enjoy this guide.

This book is one of the best photographic books on London that I've seen! I'm an anglophile, and love London, so I collect books on England and Scotland. This book is a great value!

I am not much for writing reviews, but this book deserves to have at least 1 review. I found this book to be of great value! This book is very weighty, with nice thick pages. The book even includes full page fold-outs of photos that could not be contained in a single page (Total of 4 pages for each pullout photo). This book hits the sights of London that do not get a mention in other books, while including the top sights. Each sight gets at least a paragraph worth of description. If you want a book that does the above, then pick this book up!

Peter Whitfield's "London, A Life in Maps" is a must-read for anyone with an interest in, and/or love for, Britain's capital city. Having lived in London for three years in the 1970's, and returned many times since, I found the maps, drawings, photos, and text enthralling, shedding light on innumerable aspects of the city that previously were unknown to me. What an incredible amount of research Peter Whitfield has done, and how brilliantly he presents it. The book would make a superb gift for any Anglophile or student of English history.

The British Library published this beautiful book of maps of London. The reproductions of maps and plans are enhanced with engravings, paintings and photographs. Peter Whitfield's commentary for each map is informative and engaging. Each map stands alone, but taken as a whole the book presents a panorama of a great city.

A few of my many favorites include:

Caesar's Camp called "the Brill" located just outside St. Pancras on the River Fleet just outside London.

Matthew Paris's 1250-54 diagram from London Bridge ('pons Lond.') and the Thames ('Tamise'), through Rochester and Canterbury to Dover, then crossing the sea ('La Mer') and reaching France.

A 1593 guide for Cuntrey men In the famous Cittey of LONDON.

Section and Plan of a Gateway to Westminster at Hyde Park Corner, 1778.

Plan of a Proposed TURNPIKE ROAD From St. JOHN'S CHAPEL, ST. MARYLEBONE into the Great North Road Near the 8 Mile Stone at Finchley, 1824.

A small sample of Whitfield's prose: "Between 1850 and 1945 London changed beyond recognition as a result of the interplay between population pressures, novel means of transport, a revolution in building techniques, and a new leisure ethos. By the early 20th century there were a variety of Londons. Buildings spread deep into the countryside until Green Belt legislation was passed to save what remained. Distinct types of suburb developed. Ramblers took advantage of the remaining commons, heaths and woods around London. And those two icons of modern London, the A-Z and the Underground map, were created."

The book is a delight to hold and to study. Even better, the British Library has mounted an interactive exhibit of 40 the 100 maps in this book. And, many of the maps are available for sale in the Library's shop.

Robert C. Ross 2008