Tag Archives: London

A Child of the Jago, by Arthur Morrison

Posted on 10/02/2017 by Bobby Seal

The Jago is not only a geographical area but an existential state of desperation A Child of the Jago is London-born journalist Arthur Morrison’s best known novel. It was first published in November 1896 and is set in a fictional … Continue reading →

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E. M. Forster’s London

Posted on 22/11/2016 by Bobby Seal

“To speak against London is no longer fashionable. The Earth as an artistic cult has had its day, and the literature of the near future will probably ignore the country and seek inspiration from the town. One can understand the … Continue reading →

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Flâneuse: Women Walk the City in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Venice and London by Lauren Elkin

Posted on 07/10/2016 by Bobby Seal

The flâneuse does exist, whenever we have deviated from the paths laid out for us, lighting out for our own territories. Lauren Elkin is well-qualified to write this book, not only has she lived in Paris, London, New York, Tokyo … Continue reading →

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An Unreliable Guide to London

Posted on 02/10/2016 by Bobby Seal

This is a guide to a city you never knew existed, right on your doorstep.  Blink and you’ll miss it.                             We live in London.  We come … Continue reading →

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T.S. Eliot and the Flâneur

Posted on 25/09/2016 by Bobby Seal

  Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows? …   Tom Eliot was not a flâneur, or at … Continue reading →

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The City of Dreadful Night

Posted on 06/11/2015 by Bobby Seal

James Thomson was a Scottish-born poet, atheist and anarchist. He struggled with depression, insomnia and alcohol-abuse throughout his short life and his work frequently reflected the bleakness and despair of his life’s experiences. Thomson wrote The Doom of the City … Continue reading →

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The City, Modernism and the Flâneuse

Posted on 20/10/2015 by Bobby Seal

  The passing of the historical figure paved the way for the resurrection of the flâneur as a methodological persona, adopted in order to pursue the exploration of the city. Stripped to its basic characteristics and used as a modus … Continue reading →

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‘The Lodger’ by Louisa Treger

Posted on 23/02/2015 by Bobby Seal

Ten minutes into the conversation I realise that the writer my MA supervisor is talking about is the same one I discovered for myself some months before, except she gives Walter Benjamin’s name the full Germanic pronunciation and I realise … Continue reading →

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Katherine Mansfield’s Olfactory Map of London

Posted on 04/02/2015 by Bobby Seal

  Eight o’clock in the morning.  Miss Ada Moss lay in a black iron bedstead, staring up at the ceiling.  Her room, a Bloomsbury top-floor back, smelled of soot and face powder and the paper of fried potatoes she brought … Continue reading →

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A London Safari

Posted on 10/01/2015 by Bobby Seal

My plan was to simply walk and talk with as many different people as possible.  The idea was that these walks would become a kind of interview in motion, and that walking through this urban landscape would spark more tangential … Continue reading →

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