9 Novels Set In London

Explore London from your armchair

I adore London. I live there, I work there. London has my heart.

London has long been a feature of fiction . From classics authors such as Charles Dickens to numerous contemporary authors, London is often as much a character in books as any living person.

When I travel I love to read books set in the place I am visiting. So it makes sense that living in London I love to read books set in my home city.

There are so many books which bring London to life and have me longing to get out and wander the streets. As Virginia Woolf, the author of many London based works of fiction and nonfiction said “To walk alone in London is the greatest rest.”

The books I describe here are all books I have read, enjoyed and would recommend to a friend.

Dear Mrs Bird by AJ Pearce

Set in London in 1941 during the throes of WW2, bombs are falling and causing devastation in the city. The protagonist Emmeline dreams of being a daring war correspondent. Instead she finds herself employed as a typist for the formidable Mrs Bird an agony aunt with strict criteria for the letters she is prepared to reply to.

The detail of London is so clear and the reader is transported to another time experiencing the fear and thrill of living amongst such uncertainty and danger.

Rescue Me by Sara Manning

It is the story of Margot, Will and Blossom the Staffordshire Bull Terrier. Margo and Will meet at a dog rescue centre in North London when both of them are searching for a four legged companion. When they both decide Blossom is the dog for them they embark becoming co-pawrents. Initially it seems they have little in common, but in the badly behaved Blossom, and eventually in each other, they discover the answer to their loneliness.

Place is an important part of the book, and for me the star of this story is London. Much of the story takes place in and around Hampstead Heath, Highgate and Muswell Hill. This is the London of which Richard Curtis films are made. It is also the London made up of small pockets of community and local businesses, walks on Hampstead Heath, and coffee shops and cosy pubs.

Brick Lane by Monica Ali

Set in Brick Lane in the East End of London, this has become a contemporary classic. This is about a Bangladeshi family and community. The main character Nazneen is born in Bangladesh but is sent to London after the death of her mother. She has an arranged marriage with an overbearing husband. This is in contrast to the marriage of her sister who married for love. The novel details her struggles to adapt to a London life in the confines of a tower block on a crowded housing estate. It also explores the contrast between the two relationships. The psychological impact of Nazneen’s enforced marriage and relocation is examined in clever detail.

Belgravia by Julian Fellowes

A period drama written in a similar vein to Downton Abbey. As the consequences of a relationship deemed unsuitable, two families are brought together to bear the consequences.

The haughtiness of the Duchess of Richmond, the sneaky and less than trustworthy servants. The social climbing James Trenchard who despite financial success and clear business acumen will never be fully accepted into society. The difficult daughter in law and the money grasping ‘poor relations’. All of these and more come together to create a world of aristocratic privilege shrouded in secrets and mystery.

Fellowes is gifted with ability to write about the aristocracy of London alongside those who lived on the seedier side of town with equal skill and attention to detail.

The Lido by Libby Page

An uplifting read set in and around a lido in Brixton, South London. Kate a fledgling reporter, struggling with various anxieties is tasked with covering the closure of the lido. She meets Rosemary an 86 year old lady who has swum there almost every day of her life. Rosemary met her husband at the lido and it is the centre of her world. Since her husband’s death the Lido has been key in soothing and healing her grief.

Kate discovers more about the history of the lido and the impact it has had on the community. With the help of a local photographer, she finds herself immersed in trying to save it

This is a lovely story of cross generational friendship and community, a restorative balm to anyone feeling weary of London living.

Mrs Palfrey at The Claremont

“Mrs Palfrey came to the Claremont Hotel on a Sunday afternoon in January. Rain had closed in over London, and her taxi sloshed along the almost deserted Cromwell Road, past one cavernous porch after another, the driver going slowly and poking his head out into the wet, for the hotel was not known to him. The discovery, that he did not know, had disconcerted Mrs Palfrey, for she did not know it either, and began to wonder what she was coming to”

A quiet novel with a sharply focused examination of growing old in a mediocre hotel in South Kensington. It draws out the humour and sadness of a situation that most of us would not want to find ourselves in, whilst sensitively examining society’s view of the elderly

Quartet in Autumn by Barbara Pymm

A gentle melancholic novel. Set in central London in the 1970’s. Four people in their 60’s, two men and two women work together in a non descript office in easy walking distance of the British Library and the British Museum.

On the surface it seems they have little in common except their jobs. They all live alone and exist in a certain amount of loneliness, But, they are all ‘survivors’ having learned fortitude and resilience during WW11 and The Depression. They are not prone to expressing their emotions or feelings, but when the two women who make up the quartet are approaching retirement, they each begin to acknowledge the uncertainty of their futures and tentative shows of friendship begin.

In this novel, Pymm reveals the strands of shared experience which unite people and when given time develop into friendship and love.

The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

Maggie O’Farrell is one of my favourite authors and this was the first of her books I read.

Lexie has run away from her home in rural Devon to live a bohemian London life in 1950’s Soho alongside the slightly chaotic but glamorous magazine editor Innes Kent.

In current day London, Elina, an artist is recovering from the traumatic birth of her first child and cautiously navigating the disorienting first few weeks of motherhood, Her husband Ted is a film director who has had a disturbing childhood. His memories are different to those presented to him by his parents. As Ted begins to fill in the gaps and find answers, they discover connections of art, love, betrayals, secrets, and motherhood between two women living fifty years apart.

The two stories are told in tandem and the chapters alternate between each story which could be irritating but in O’Farrells skilled hands works brilliantly.

On Hampstead Heath by Marika Cobbald

The book takes place mainly in and around Hampstead. When Thorn a journalist who prides herself on uncovering and writing the truth is shown a photograph taken by her ex husband of an angelic looking man supposedly jumping from a bridge on Hampstead Heath, her imagination gets the better of her. Late one night, fuelled by alcohol and desperation, she files a mostly fabricated story based on this sighting.

On Hampstead Heath poses the question “How much of what we read in the newspapers, and on social media, is true?” It explores what happens when a story with only a grain of truth in it goes viral and how quickly things can spiral out of control.

I write regularly about all things London on my blog Changing Pages