Events

I wish I could stay longer. London in winter isn't so bad. But I'm sure I'll be back in a couple of months. Meanwhile, I need a nap. I've got an 8-hour flight to take it on.

Hatchard Books, Piccadilly

I got lost in here for an hour: This is Hatchard's, the oldest bookstore in London. If I had much more time or if I were checking a bag tomorrow, I'd have bought more books. You know, to go with the hundred or so I haven't read yet...

Jennifer Finney Boyan explains the English tradition, along with its Irish counterpart: In England, it’s Boxing Day; in Ireland and elsewhere, it’s St. Stephen’s Day. When I was a student in London, my professor, a Briton, explained that it was called Boxing Day because it’s the day disappointed children punch one another out. For years I trusted this story, which only proves that there are some people who will believe anything, and I am one of them. The real origins of Boxing Day go back to feudal...

Hatchard Books, Piccadilly

Started in London

After an amazing dinner at One Aldwych this evening, I grabbed a book from my room* and headed down to my own hotel's bar. Between the two places I met people from Italy, Spain, Cape Verde (via Portugal), Germany, Russia, Poland, Sardinia (yes, a part of Italy), and Wales (yes, a part of the UK). London has made itself over the past two decades into this kind of mixed, cosmopolitan, vibrant city. I hope it continues; Brexit could kill it. So I'm glad I'm visiting now while it's at peak international....

Read in London

A triptych. Dinner: Outside: Inside: Noel.

Christmas Eve, not Hallowe'en, is the night Londoners tell ghost stories: The city’s occasional creepiness has been actively fabricated, a product of its history of destruction and haphazard rebuilding. It has long been a canvas for only semi-realized grand designs, from Christopher Wren’s 17th century plans to turn the city into a second Florence to 1970s schemes to flatten historic Covent Garden Market. Destruction in the form of fires, bombing and brutal redevelopment have also reshaped the city...