In Search of London by H.V. MortonDa Capo Press, 2002 (originally Methuen, 1951)

Quirky and fascinating and sweet London essays from the post-WWII years. Morton captures the span & glory of history, from Roman London onward: monarchs & intrigue & so many old buildings. Though his tone can be sentimental or overly nostalgic or a little stuffy (referring to bebop as “the latest disharmony”), it’s mostly just wonderfully quaint. He writes so charmingly about the places he visits and the people he sees: the old man on the riverboat who turns out to have been an electrician when people were just switching to electricity from gas, the customers at second-hand bookshops, the vendors at the old Caledonian Market. Details and accents and memories: the fact that Morton, as a small boy, saw a London full of horses rather than cars, and then lived through the wars, through the Blitz.