Click here to buy a signed copy of the CRIES OF LONDON. IN THE MIDST OF LIFE I WAKE in the dark city of my dreaming. It is the bellman that wakes me before dawn, crying wearily Pa ...

Today I remember my old cat, Mr Pussy. This is an extract from the biography I wrote of him, THE LIFE & TIMES OF MR PUSSY.

Each year in December, we get a couple of days of intense sunlight transforming Christ Church Spitalfields. At this time when the sun is at its lowest angle, the church becomes an intricate light box ...

In celebration of the 100th birthday yesterday of Sally Flood, the Whitechapel poet, here are a selection of her poems accompanied with photographs by John Claridge. Life has many doorways To educate ...

“I had always written, as a child,” admitted Sally Flood with a shrug, “but it wasn’t stuff you showed.” For years, when her thoughts wandered whilst working in the factory in Princelet St, Sally ...

Mistletoe’s ability to flourish in the depths of winter has made it as a symbol of fertility and life through the centuries, but it was the Victorians who popularised the ‘kissing ball’, a collection ...

In spite of the bombing, the slum clearances and redevelopments, the East End is still with us. In Stepney, there is an entire quarter of early nineteenth century terraces and squares that have ...

The Romans introduced walnut trees into this country and they have been cultivated here ever since, but you would have to go a long way these days to find anyone farming walnuts. Contributing ...

I am delighted to publish this extract of a post from A London Inheritance, written by a graduate of my blog writing course. Follow A LONDON INHERITANCE, A Private History of a Public City We are now ...

I am taking bookings for the next writing course, HOW TO WRITE A BLOG THAT PEOPLE WILL WANT TO READ on February 7th & 8th. Come to Spitalfields and spend a winter weekend with me in an eighteenth ...

19 11.28.13 Joseph Markovitch, I’ve Lived In East London For Eighty-Six & A Half Years ...