Amazon Review Iain Sinclair - London Orbital - A walk around the M25, Grays Essex England

Amazon.co.uk Review

One might be forgiven for thinking that the only thing more boring than spending a year walking around the M25 would be reading a large book about walking around the M25. Yet Iain Sinclair's London Orbital is a fascinating and curiously haunting read. Part of the reason is that Sinclair brings to the project an immense literary talent, an intense and lifelong interest in the history of London and some extremely interesting travelling companions.

The walk was taken in several stages, from Waltham Abbey to Shenley, Abbots Langley to Staines, Staines to Epsom and Epsom to Westerham before going on to Dartford, the river and Carfax and arriving back at Waltham Abbey. Each stage fills a chapter and the reader is advised to take a leaf out of Sinclair's own book by taking one stage, one chapter at a time. This is a large book of 450-odd pages and by the time the journey gets under way-–about 60 pages in--even Sinclair's dazzling prose is not enough to offset the gloomy prospect of taking a second-hand trip around the London Orbital. And yet after the first trip one finds oneself being sucked in and thinking about some of the grey, ugly images, or being angered by the grasping and philistine approach of developers and copywriters and the cynicism and hypocrisy of government.

The history of London has long been Sinclair's great passion but he populates this strange excursion with flesh-and-blood people as well as literary and mythic figures: there's John Clare watching Byron's funeral procession before embarking on his epic three-day journey back to Northborough, "chewing tobacco and gnawing grass torn up from the roadside"; then there are tales of Dracula, of lost lunatic asylums, of passionate political activists crying out against toxic land and of meetings with ex-members of London's criminal underworld.

London Orbital gets under the skin. What looks at first like a dull and deeply unappealing journey is actually a multi-layered, lyrical, ugly, mythical, engaged and engaging excursion from the present into the past and back again. --Larry Brown --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'It isn't often that one reads a book and is convinced that it's an instant classic, but I'm sure that LONDON ORBITAL will be read 50 years from now. This account of his walk around the M25 is on one level a journey into the heart of darkness, that terrain of golf courses, retail parks and industrial estates which is Blair's Britain. It's a fascinating snapshot of who we are, lit by Sinclair's vivid prose, and on another level a warning that the mythological England of village greens and cycling aunts has been buried under the rush of a million radial tyres' J. G. Ballard, Observer

Will Self, New Statesman

‘Sinclair’s recent work represents some of the most important in contemporary English letters' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Tim Adams, Observer

‘It is the pilgrimage for our times...every sentence rewards your attention’ --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Ian Thomson, Sunday Times

'throughout this great...strange book, Sinclair’s prose is of an Elizabethan richness, giddy with information, by turns gritty and lyrical' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

The Times (Play)

‘An absolute joy. This unashamedly intellectual traveller uncovers a rich history whose traces are rapidly being wiped from the landscape' --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description

A brilliant voyage of discovery into the deeply unfashionable fringes of London. 'It isn't often that one reads a book and is convinced that it's an instant classic, but I'm sure that LONDON ORBITAL will be read 50 years from now. This account of his walk around the M25 is on one level a journey into the heart of darkness, that terrain of golf courses, retail parks and industrial estates which is Blair's Britain. It's a fascinating snapshot of who we are, lit by Sinclair's vivid prose, andon another level a warning that the mythological England of village greens and cycling aunts has been buried under the rush of a million radial tyres' J. G. Ballard, Observer

About the Author

Iain Sinclair's books include DOWNRIVER (James Tait Black Memorial Prize and the Encore Award), WHITE CHAPPELL and LIGHTS OUT FOR THE TERRITORY. He lives in Hackney, East London.