Book 28 - A Little London Scandal by Miranda Emmerson

Reading date - September 2020

This book took me ages to read (a week) because I kept researching as I was reading it.  It is set around the area I worked in last year, St James Square at the cross of Piccadilly and Green Park.  I kept stopping to Google distances covered in the book to see if it was realistic as I think if you're going to that much effort to be realistic then it should hold up to scrutiny, otherwise you should just totally make places up.  I'm glad to report back that everything in this respect is spot on.  Not only are the areas in the correct places (ooh err missus) but even bus routes are correct.  For example, they get the number 7 bus (I got it all the time before Covid) and little comments here and there show that they have followed the route as the actual bus goes..e.g. it cruises past Ladbroke Grove like a four wheel drive and that and also past Paddington, both which are noted as throwaway comments to those who know no better.

I am forever in love with a London I never ever got to experience.  I understand that for people of my hue, it was no fun time, my dad does speak to me about these times.  I love that this book is about a seedy era of London, remnants of which are quickly falling to the hand of the gentrifier.  Books like this are often spoken about from the point of view of those who are "wholesome", e.g. the policemen, the people in polite society. 

The book covers the Piccadilly area mainly (the Dilly), the steps outside Boots (I don't know of any steps there now and photos of the old Boots didn't show any either so maybe it means the steps across the road).  The Swann and Edgar which became Virgin Megastores and is now something I have no idea about..only the Swann and Edgar sign outside shows what it once was.  The famous Wimpy is also mentioned and I now FINALLY know where it is.  It is two shops down from Boots, where Jewel bar (gbnf) was.  It was clear it was going to go, it stood out like a sore thumb down that road next to fancy pants Wholefoods.  The old black wooden sign was functional and the white sheeted interior always made me feel like I was in a trattoria...a feeling which quickly vanished when you came out to the piss rain and the smelliest entrance to a tube station ever.  I spent many a pre-drinking session in there during both my youth and my adult life (yay for the British culture of getting on the drink early).

Some of the titles of the chapters are the titles of songs from the era, featuring the Stones, Led Zeppelin and Nina Simone.

The book is a bit slow moving, halfway through the stories don't really seem to go anywhere.  This could have been a fiver star book but it is rapidly making me lose patience with it, something needs to happen!  There is a lot of going around in circles and getting to the bottom of things.

My main criticism of this book is that it uses the word "coloured" more than once but it's not used during someone talking, it's used to tell the story.  I am not cool with this at all!! 

This is a sad book at heart, about people missing something, be it their family they ran away from, the love of a partner, the freedom to love to who they want without facing punishment from the law.  The book is not sensationalist at all and is quite sobering.  The best thing about this book is that it shows the other side of the scandal, showing what happens to the little man, not the person who knowingly breaks the law knowing they are above it and who carries on with a normal life.

Despite it moving slowly, I was invested in the story as it pulls you in.  I'd recommend it but be warned that it is slow moving sometimes