London Clay cover art

London Clay

Journeys in the Deep City

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London Clay

By: Tom Chivers
Narrated by: Tom Chivers
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

What secrets lie beneath a city?

Tom Chivers follows hidden pathways, explores lost islands and uncovers the geological mysteries that burst up through the pavement and bubble to the surface of our streets. From Roman ruins to a submerged playhouse, from an abandoned Tube station to underground rivers, Chivers leads us on a journey into the depths of the city he loves.

A lyrical interrogation of a capital city, a landscape and our connection to place, London Clay celebrates urban edgelands: in-between spaces where the natural world and the metropolis collide. Through a combination of historical research, vivid reportage and personal memoir, it will transform how you see London, and cities everywhere.

©2021 Tom Chivers (P)2021 Penguin Audio Archaeology Sociology Urban

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Critic reviews

"Tom Chivers, with the forensic eye of an investigator, the soul of a poet, is an engaging presence; a guide we would do well to follow." (Iain Sinclair, author of The Last London)

"It's entertaining, enlightening and deeply moving. You will learn something about London and a good deal about life." (Justin Webb)

All stars
Most relevant  
Interesting, light on details on London archaeology, structure was in my opinion unorganised. Perhaps a revised title would be more appropriate.

Review

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My fault for not reading summary. Though was geology, but just the author living in London, giving history lessons. Sure it is interesting if you live in London, but I don't.

Bought wrong book

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The story of the rivers, the geology, the history is fascinating. There’s too much ‘personal’ stuff that doesn’t add much and also rambling irrelevant bits (eg section on Mumbai). The narration also has some jarring pacing/pronunciation/emphasis so the sentences sound unnatural. I have enjoyed much of it but do feel editing would have made this better. If you love London and its history you will probably be able to get over the problems!

Needs a good edit

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Part history, part geography, part memoir. London fascinates me so this was an enjoyable listen, a nice relaxing listen.

Not sure how to describe this one, but I enjoyed it!

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I found this quite rambling, repetitive and unstructured. It seemed to be spent mostly in search of some obscure tributary on the Thames which seemed to be very similar to the last one. No map was provided, so I gave up trying to follow it and just tried to listen. Occasionally my attention would be sparked, only to realise I hadn't absorbed a word for the last 20 minutes as I had drifted away from the narrative. I am not a native of London although I don't live that far away, maybe if I was it would have helped.

Quite dull and rambling

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Chivers obviously loves London and his take on the mysterious underworld of the city is fascinating. After the first couple of chapters I had high hopes for ‘London Clay’ but, unfortunately, it becomes a veritable tsunami of poetic lyricism (see…..!) and loses its sharpness and focus so much so that, to me, it became a trial. Returned the book..!

Curate’s Egg

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An eclectic mix of geography, history, folklore, culture, geology, magic and art. I loved this book from start to finish and was quite sorry to finish it. I will definitely be back to listen again, I’m sure there will be things I’ve missed.

Charming and Enthralling

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I found myself listening to a young man give a rewrite of history presumably from the kitchen table talk as a kid growing up in middle class London, so we end up with superficial, red top blithering of a lazy researcher knocking out a book as of course is his middle class Londoner’s privilege. Can i get a refund ?

Too much uninformed opinion

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