London Clay: Journeys in the Deep City

Description

London Clay is a lyrical exploration of a city's hidden history. Written in rich and vivid prose, Chivers leads us beneath the city streets, deep into London's forgotten past. __________________ London Clay explores the hidden layers that make up this city. Armed with just his tattered Streetfinder map, Chivers leads his reader down forgotten waterways into abandoned catacombs and buried stations, exploring the nooks and crannies of a forgotten city. His network of journeys combine together to produce a compelling interrogation of London's past. In a route that covers much of his own personal history, this is a bold exploration of the city's secrets and asks us also to consider important questions about its future.

Tom Chivers is a writer, publisher and arts producer. He was born in 1983 in south London. He has released two pamphlets and two collections of poetry, the latest being Dark Islands (Test Centre, 2015). His poems have been anthologized in Dear World & Everything In It and London: A History in Verse. He was shortlisted for the Michael Marks and Edwin Morgan Poetry Awards and received an Eric Gregory Award in 2011. Tom has made perambulatory, site-specific and audio work for organisations including LIFT, Cape Farewell, Humber Mouth and Southbank Centre. He was writer in residence at Bishopsgate Institute and associate artist of the National Centre of Writing. In 2009 he presented a documentary for BBC Radio 4 about the poet Barry MacSweeney. In 2011 an animated film of his poem 'The Event' was broadcast by Channel 4's Random Acts. He lives in Rotherhithe with his wife and daughters.

Will open readers' eyes to what is around and below them ... Its delight in exploration is matched by a thoughtful meditation on grief. * Economist * Periodic surprises even for the most dedicated student of this subject ... movingly written. -- Caroline Crampton * Spectator * Incredible ... More than a simply a cracking read, it's a book that will inspire you to go out and make your own discoveries. You'll never look at the city in the same way again. * Londonist * London Clay by Tom Chivers, is perfect. He brings a poet's sensibility to this prose nonfiction book about the hidden parts of the capital, mixing the past with the present, the known with the unknown and his personal story with social history and geology. -- Bernardine Evaristo, author of Girl, Woman, Other [Chivers] combines the modern phenomenon of psycho-geographer with the ancient trade of poet ... Action-packed, erudite... an audiobook to savour slowly. -- Christina Hardyment * The Times *