We love it when people paint a colourful portrait of our native town, London – one that makes us stop, look and listen, and think a little bit more about our surroundings. Canadian author and playwright Craig Taylor, has done just that, collating all his observations and conversations into a very colourful book for us to read – complete with London underground lines adorning the front cover. It’s a collection of voices and opinions – so that every page appears to zing with noise, turning our beloved city into a living, breathing organism.
Taylor also clearly has a knack of selecting some of the most interesting London residents, here are a few of our favourties:
Emmajo Read, a nightclub doorkeeper, explains that what he especially loves in the summer is when it’s about half three, four, in the morning, and there is this kind of purple-pinky hue to the sky…He goes on to say: ‘when I’ve been at my most pissed off, my most offended and just felt really despairing, I look up to the Barbican tower and I see the top of Smithfield market and that sky, and it’s like I’m just in it.’
A currency trader concludes that ‘if it were a human being, a government market would be a very old, ugly woman. On the other hand, the currency market would be a very attractive blonde.”
A transsexual called Sarah, explains that before her operation, ‘London was about systems, about circuits, connections, roads. It was an emotionless place where things simply operated. After the change London is an emotional place. I feel the flows of emotion. I see the sadness of buildings, the sad gorgeousness of light on the streets.’
The Days and Nights of London Now – As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It and Long for It is out now in hardback, to buy the book [click here]
