LONDON

A sweeping illustrated tour of London from the Pleistocene Epoch to the present.

Starting 2.6 million years ago and ending with the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, this account shows the numerous permutations of present-day London’s land and its many waves of inhabitants. Short chapters, some just a paragraph long, show the varied cultures of those who have lived in this spot beside the River Thames, from the earliest Stone Age settlers through to subsequent multicultural influences of Romans, Anglo-Saxons, Vikings, and Normans to its growth over the last few centuries to becoming the city it is today. Carlin covers key events—the signing of the Magna Carta in 1215 and the Great Fire of 1666—along with pivotal eras, such as the Black Death, which killed about half the population in the mid-14th century and the 19th-century Industrial Revolution; such descriptions provide context about the influences that shaped this metropolis. Primary and secondary resources, including poems, quotations, and a nursery rhyme, add context and breathe life into the events. The soft, slightly impressionistic illustrations, executed in watercolor, ink, oil pastel, and colored pencil, use a muted palette that perfectly matches the tone of the narrative, which provides the essence of the history rather than describing fine details. Reds and blues provide occasional pops of color in dramatic scenes of wars, gladiator battles, and fires.

Like a walk through a well-curated museum on the history of a great city.