David Long

Prolific London author with a penchant for fascinating facts

A journalist and ghostwriter for nearly 30 years, David Long has also written and illus­trated a dozen books under his own name. These include several on London, the initial inspiration for which grew out of his frustration at moving to the city in the early 1980s and finding that no-​​one who lived there was able to answer any of his questions about its more unusual buildings. Instead, passers-​​by would shrug and walk off or come up with a colourful tale which on further examination turned out to be nonsense. Now, he says, most of the letters and emails he receives from readers come from people who live in London and notice the buildings and want to know more – but then begin to take their surroundings for granted without ever finding out the truth.

Hidden London asked David to say a few words about his books on London:

Spectacular Vernacular: London’s 100 Most Extraordinary Buildings

Moving to London from university – time-​​rich and cash-​​poor – I spent many hours walking the streets of the capital, which was fascinating and didn’t cost anything.

Among the well-​​known landmarks I found so many more inter­esting buildings – strange and beautiful ones, old and very old – most of which weren’t in any of the usual books. I decided that one day I’d write about them myself – and 20 years later I finally got around to doing it.
 

Tunnels, Towers and Temples: London’s 100 Strangest Places

This one started out as an obvious sequel to the first one, but has consistently outsold it, perhaps because the idea of secret tunnels and weird temples in a city most of us think we know pretty well is irres­istible. Once again, pruning it to just 100 took up most of the time for, as anyone who knows London knows, the more you look for inter­esting stuff the more of it you find.

 
The Little Book of London

For about three years in the 1990s I wrote a cartoon strip for the motoring section of The Times – for years I was a petrolhead, but I’m cured now – realising along the way that I’d always been a bit of a trivia junkie and had amassed tons of stuff.

Much of it was on London, an inevitable consequence of authorship, and this book represents my best attempt to reorder it in such a way as to make my readers laugh.
 

The Little Book of the London Underground

Somehow all London trivia eventually leads to the Tube, so this book was probably bound to be written eventually. It’s one of my favourites, however.

Writing it was a real voyage of discovery and introduced me to a whole new batch of London enthu­siasts who are passionate and scarily knowledgeable about what goes on down below.
 

When Did Big Ben First Bong? 101 Crucial Questions about the Greatest City on Earth

The stuff most of us don’t even know we don’t know. Who was Gordon, and why did he riot? Why isn’t SW2 between SW1 and SW3? And why did so many evacuees come back to London at the height of the Blitz?

A cynic might say that none of it really matters, but somehow it matters a lot if you love London like we do.

 
Hidden City: The Secret Alleys, Courts and Yards of London’s Square Mile

Between school and university – in what I suppose must have been a parentally-​​guided bid to broaden my experience of life – I spent six months clerking for an investment bank in the City. Lunchtimes I spent wandering through the scores of little thoroughfares which had somehow survived literally centuries of devel­opment. Thirty years on I still find them irres­istible, and can happily lose myself there all day.
 

London Under­ground: Archi­tecture, Design & History

When photo­grapher Jane Magarigal showed me an unpub­lished portfolio of beautiful monochrome images of the Tube taken in the 1970s I knew it was time for a new book on the Tube. They’re the best I’ve seen in years, and such a wonderful reminder of how the creation of the world’s first under­ground rail network drew in some of the leading architects, artists and (yes) social visionaries of the early 20th century.
 

Murders of London: In the Steps of the Capital’s Killers

I still enjoy walking the streets of London, and with a camera decided to document the homes of some of its grisliest residents. Everyone loves a good murder, and with the names of Crippen, Christie, Ellis, and Nilsen – and of course Jack the Ripper – as much a part of the city’s fabric as those of Whittington, Dickens and Wren, I thought I’d go and find where they did what they did and why. (To be published by Random House on 3rd May 2012.)