Synopsis
Longlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize 2016, formerly known as the Samuel Johnson Prize.
This is the new London: an immigrant city. Over one-third of Londoners were born abroad, with half arriving since the millennium. This has utterly transformed the capital, for better and for worse.
Ben Judah is an acclaimed foreign correspondent, but here he turns his reporter's gaze on home,...
Details
21 March 2019718 minutes
9781529016291Imprint: Picador
Reviews
It is hard to overstate the value of what Judah has done . . . This is London is an important and impressive bookSunday Telegraph
An eye-opening investigation into the hidden immigrant life of the city . . . You won't read a more succinct analysisSunday Times
A revelatory work, full of nuggets of unexpected information about the lives of others . . . [Judah] is a fine, intrepid reporterFinancial Times
Work of this sort really is necessary; this is the stuff we must think about it we are ever to get to grips (assuming it's not too late already) with what lies ahead for our cities. Every MP should be given a copy immediately. On every page lies and uncomfortable truth, in every paragraph sheer horror. It is a book that demonstrably improves the eyesight. Read it, and the streets will look different: I guarantee it. Above all, more than I can possibly say, I admired its author's pluck, determination, compassion and refusal to judge - and I'd like him to know that some of the stories he told will haunt me for a long time to comeRachel Cooke, New Statesman
