Good and bad, dangerous and exciting - views of the Greatest City on Earth

Loved and hated in equal measure, London was for centuries literally the world's greatest city. Its citizens have seen everything from pilgrimages, celebrations, acts of heroism and moments of religious contemplation to riots, executions, grisly murders and disastrous fires. This anthology is a history of work and capital, of power and exuberance, and of great creativity from a rich host of artists and writers, Pepys and Dickens among them, but also of violent crime, exploitation, loneliness and extreme hardship.

Contemporary letters, diaries and memoirs tell the story of the city from its earliest years to the present day. Here you will find John Evelyn on the great Fire in 1666, Dickens's brilliant evocation of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Boswell's description of the compilation of Dr Johnson's Dictionary, and Churchill's recollections of the Blitz. These and many less familiar, though no less vivid, extracts provide a taste of the essential spirit of London.

'This anthology demonstrates in remarkable detail that London was the lodestone of the magnet of the traveller through the ages, and helps to illuminate specific aspects of the experience of London' Peter Ackroyd