Londoners
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Summary
Like the rest of us, they search and lose, pray and wander in the big city; they reap its rewards and are wounded by it too.
Over five years, the writer Craig Taylor moved through every corner of London, day and night, and selected 85 ordinary people from more than 200 interviews. Among them are a currency trader who has realized a professional ideal, a lost-property clerk inured to the world’s variety, a plumber who once worked as an actor, and also street cleaners, taxi drivers, paramedics, estate agents, chefs and pilots. These true stories of ordinary people, mingling sorrow and joy, form a floating-world portrait of London. Every word strikes the heart and strikes a chord.
“When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.” But only those who have lived in a big city can understand its complicated taste: loving it, hating it, longing for it, tiring of it, fleeing it—or staying on and living.
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Ordinary readers living in big cities who have complex feelings about urban life
- Readers who enjoy oral histories and narrative nonfiction
- Readers interested in urban occupational groups and the lives of ordinary people
- Those interested in London's urban culture and social ecology
Not a good fit for
- Readers expecting a travel guide that systematically introduces London's history and geography
- Readers who prefer tightly plotted, continuously narrated long-form stories
Reading tips
- Read by occupation or theme, three to five pieces at a time, leaving room to reflect and compare with your own experience
- When a passage resonates, jot down your own urban experiences to create a dialogue with the interviews
- Read alongside a map or images of the city to place the personal accounts in specific spatial settings
- After finishing, make a list of questions you most want to pursue, then revisit relevant chapters for clues
About the publisher
Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House is a publisher known for its literary titles, with a catalogue spanning foreign literature, world classics, classical Chinese literature, essays and miscellaneous writings, and mystery and detective fiction. Judging from the more than 1,100 books in the database, the press publishes foreign classics such as Crime and Punishment, Snow Country, The Complete Sherlock Holmes and Letter from an Unknown Woman, as well as Chinese classical and modern literary works including Lu Xun's Wandering and A Madman's Diary and Wu Jingzi's The Scholars. In terms of translators and authors, translations by Cao Guowei and Tan Jinghua appear in its foreign literature titles, and the authors involved include Dostoevsky, Kawabata Yasunari, Conan Doyle and Zweig. Its publishing character lies in introducing Chinese and foreign literary classics side by side, balancing popular and serious works and attending to both readability and literary value. Public information is limited; the above is a brief overview based solely on the books in the database.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 序
- 引言
- 前伦敦人
- 第一部分
- 来到伦敦
- 商务飞机飞行员
- 从利兹来到伦敦
- 从乌干达来到伦敦
- 来自美国的旅客
- 从伊朗来到伦敦
- 到处走走
- 伦敦地铁之声
- 出租车司机
- 骑单车的人
- 伦敦交通局失物认领处职员
- 驾车教练
- 土木工程师
- 看看风景
- 说说白金汉宫
- 说说大本钟
- 说说伦敦塔
- 说说“伦丁”
- 挣钱糊口
- 水管工
- 货币交易员
- 美甲师
- 酒吧老板
- 爱与性
- 爱的故事
- 在国会山上相遇的情侣
- 专业施虐者
- 护士
- 适应伦敦
- 学生
- 悲伤辅导师
- 私人教练
- 伦敦人
- 第二部分
- 继续旅程
- 城市规划师
- 街头摄影师
- 环卫工人
- 公交车调度经理
- 园艺师
- 通勤者
- 城市边缘人
- 捡垃圾的人
- 垂钓者
- 养蜂人
- 女祭司
- 城市供给者
- 厨师
- 市场主任
- 新斯皮塔福德市场的商人
- 一步步往上爬
- 房产经纪人
- 房东
- 想买房子的人
- 占屋者
- 萨里郡居民
- 艺术展示
- 艺术家
- 演员
- 歌手
- 说唱歌手
- 画廊老板
- 寻欢作乐
- 人力车夫
- 漫交者
- 夜店门童
- 股票经纪人/唱片骑师
- 第三部分
- 生活抉择
- 选择留在纽卡斯尔的人
- 选择来到伦敦的人
- 好好相处
- 时事评论员
- 社会工作者
- 教师
- 翻译
- 母亲
- 维护安全
- 家庭安全专家
- 警官
- 暴乱目击者
- 嫌疑人
- 出庭律师
- 副警长与伦敦二级警署
- 抗议者
- 留在顶端
- 政策与资源委员会主席
- 学生
- 对冲基金经理
- 金丝雀码头集团首席执行官
- 生与死
- 威斯敏斯特市婚姻登记官
- 目击者
- 急救护理人员
- 丧葬承办人
- 火葬场技工
- 离开伦敦
- 追寻者
- 古董钟表修复师
- 领养老金的人
- 前伦敦人
- 出租车司机
- 商务飞机飞行员
- 致谢
- 译名对照表
FAQ
Is this book a collection of interview transcripts or the author's retelling?
Will I feel disconnected reading this if I've never been to London?
Is it suitable for reading in one sitting?
Comments
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About the author
Craig Taylor is a writer whose work centers on oral history and nonfiction. Public information about him is limited, and his nationality, dates of birth and death, and full biography have not been clearly recorded. Judging from the three works held in the collection, his writing consistently focuses on the modern metropolis: New Yorkers: A City and Its People in Our Time and Londoners both use oral history to record city residents' own accounts, letting ordinary voices form a portrait of the city, while Londoners vs New Yorkers: The Nonfiction Classics of Oral History Master Craig Taylor places the two cities side by side. These works are usually classified under foreign literature and world history, and their style emphasizes factual recording and a sense of immediacy, attracting readers through sustained attention to the details of urban life.
Hua Yuan is an author about whom limited public information is available; their nationality, dates of birth and death, and English name remain unknown, and two of their works are held in the collection. Judging from the representative titles Londoners and Londoners vs. New Yorkers: Oral History Master Craig Taylor's Classic Nonfiction (2 volumes), Hua Yuan's writing is closely connected with Craig Taylor's oral-history nonfiction, focusing on the everyday lives and urban experiences of ordinary people in metropolises such as London and New York. Works of this kind are built on interviews and oral accounts, letting interviewees tell city stories in their own voices; the style is plain and close to reality, combining a world-history perspective with the readability of foreign literature. Hua Yuan's selection and presentation offer Chinese readers an entry point into contemporary urban oral-history writing.
