Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London

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Some of the content was very tenuously related to London or night walking, or, for that matter, night or walking. I didn't agree with all his assessments - I wouldn't say shelley is making the case that the skylark is an aesthetic construct, for example,I just think he's saying it has transcended the material realm.

His writing is overly literary and self important - seeing the Forward was written by Will Self was fair warning, I suppose - making large chunks of the book almost unreadable. The cover may have some limited signs of wear but the pages are clean, intact and the spine remains undamaged. There were some lovely descriptions and interesting anecdotes but this was essentially a jumble of ideas. John Lewis-Stempel nimmt seine Leser auf vier Wanderungen durch die Landschaft rund um seine Farm mit.This is my first experience reading John Lewis-Stempel and though I did have to slow down and reread some lines, to really 'get it', I found him stimulating and enjoyable company. Indeed, the etymology of the terms ‘noctivagant’ and ‘vagrant’ hints at the notion of straying beyond established boundaries, and the night watchmen who were charged with protecting the city were often corrupt. And Dickens; anyone who has ever wandered lonely down by the Thames at Southwark after hours will know the threat and menace of his best worst villains. A mostly very enjoyable and readable account of nightwalking in London from the eleventh century to the 19th, as mediated by literature.

Matthew Beaumont recounts an alternative history of London - populated by the poor, the mad, the lost, the vagrant and the noctambulant. This book had some interesting points to make, but seemed either to get bogged down in the quantity of sources (after ~1650) or the quotes themselves. Having to look up terminology every few sentences breaks any immersion I may have with a book and therefor this failed fundamentaly for me.I started the project from a place of rage, after reading an extract from John Lewis-Stempel’s new book of the same name. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. which is always accompanied by how we view people who've wandered the night over the centuries and of the night itself.