#235 - London in 2011, London in the 1660s

An episode from 7/27/26: Tonight, we visit London at two different times in history. First, I read passages from Craig Taylor’s 2011 book Londoners: The days and nights of London now—as told by those who love it, hate it, live it, left it, and long for it. Then we go back a few centuries in Liza Picard’s Restoration London: Everyday Life in London 1660-1670, and focus especially on the lives of women, children, and the poor.

I also talk about the value of accounts like these, which don’t pretend to be definitive or objective. But what else do we really hold onto, in the end, other than vivid and subjective stories told by the people we’re closest to, or gleaned from books that we love? Taylor and Picard’s books have both become those for me.

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