A major work of narrative non-fiction from a fresh new voice.
Ben Judah was born in London. He has travelled widely in Russia, Central Asia and the Levant. His writing has been featured widely, including in the New York Times, the Evening Standard, the Financial Times and Standpoint. In 2016, Ben was chosen as one of Forbes magazine's 30 under 30 in European media. His first book, Fragile Empire, was published by Yale University Press in 2013.
It is hard to overstate the value of what Judah has done . . . This
is London is an important and impressive book
*Sunday Telegraph*
A revelatory work, full of nuggets of unexpected information about
the lives of others . . . [Judah] is a fine, intrepid reporter
*Financial Times*
Judah has succeeded in opening reader's eyes to the hardships
experienced by many and ignored by most
*Independent*
This is of my favourite books on London, largely because of the
quality of the writing – such sass, such soaring confidence and
style . . . Judah listens and observes with acute loyalty to
depicting truth, so that no matter who’s talking, the dialogue
seems brilliantly accurate. Well researched, it covers all corners
of London in forensic detail
*Diana Evans, author of Ordinary People*
An epic account of London as a place where global migrants come to
scratch a subsistence living or, occasionally, spend a shady
fortune. We are far, far beyond the Windrush generation here.
Arabs, Afghans, Nigerians, Poles, Romanians and Russians pour out
their stories – often terrifying, mostly sad, occasionally funny –
while Judah writes it all down in compulsive, shocking detail.
We’re back in Mayhew’s London, but now watercress sellers and
mudlarks have been replaced by sleepy Africans catching the early
morning night bus to their office cleaning jobs four zones over on
the other side of town.
*Guardian, included in the ten best non-fiction books about London
feature*
Work of this sort really is necessary; this is the stuff we must
think about it we are ever to get to grips (assuming it's not too
late already) with what lies ahead for our cities. Every MP should
be given a copy immediately. On every page lies and uncomfortable
truth, in every paragraph sheer horror. It is a book that
demonstrably improves the eyesight. Read it, and the streets will
look different: I guarantee it. Above all, more than I can possibly
say, I admired its author's pluck, determination, compassion and
refusal to judge - and I'd like him to know that some of the
stories he told will haunt me for a long time to come
*New Statesman*
However well you think you know the city, you’ll see it afresh
after reading this immersive account by Judah . . . by turns
heartbreaking and heartening, and sometimes both in the space of a
page. It’s a fizzing, buzzing, choral
account of the 21st-century capital
*Daily Telegraph*
This truly extraordinary book is as raw, powerful, unflinching,
witty, engaging, shocking, in-your-face and occasionally both
heartwarming and heartbreaking as the great but complex and flawed
city it chronicles. I've lived in London for three decades yet
found something I didn't know about it on virtually every page
*Andrew Roberts, author of Napoleon the Great*
An eye-opening investigation into the hidden immigrant life of the
city . . . You won't read a more succinct analysis
*Sunday Times*
Having spent the last year meeting people along several of the
world's busiest migration trails, it is fascinating to read Ben
Judah's powerful account of where some of them end up. Judah has
created an alternative and essential guide to London, and
Londoners, in 2015.'
*Guardian*
Mesmerising, trenchant and deeply compassionate
*Bookseller*
A vital, almost overwhelming panorama of brutality and
injustice
*Metro*
Ben Judah offers no answers; but bears witness. He reports the
stories of London's immigrants with a smart mind, a light touch and
a brave and compassionate heart. These statements deserve to be
heard. This is London is an important, state of the nation,
eye-opening report from our increasingly ghettoized capital
city
*Dan Boothby, author of Island of Dreams*
This Is London is an exhilarating account of the British capital .
. . His writing is visceral, and at its best echoes the immersive
style of the great Polish reporter and author Ryszard Kapuscinski .
. . He treats his subjects with great sensitivity . . . an
important, unflinching piece of reportage. Judah digs deep into
parts of London that a less adventurous journalist would avoid,
unearthing some of the many tragic narratives shaping a city at the
turbulent forefront of globalisation
*The National (Scotland)*
[Judah travels through the city, coaxing astonishing interviews
from a wide range of migrants . . . He captures the different
voices with great skill . . . His observations are acute . . . His
interviews are always psychologically telling . . . Most remarkable
is Judah's obvious compassion, to which his subjects respond,
opening their hearts and letting their voices "tumble" into his
tape recorder . . . London emerges from this book as a disturbing,
dramatically changing city . . . It is an extraordinary portrait of
a city and a rare treat to come across a book in which the ideas
are as compelling and fresh as the writing. This is London is a
game changer. No longer can we stroll past villages of sleeping
Roma and pretend they do not exist. This is London today and Ben
Judah is its chronicler
*Literary Review*
Amazing
*Peter Pomerantsev*
A chronicle of the capital so incisively up-to-date it is
disconcerting, invigorating, and depressing all at once . . . Judah
allows the new Londoners to speak for themselves and, in so doing,
shines a light on the dark corners of the city
*Mail on Sunday*
Judah is brilliant at winning the confidence of London's immigrant
poor and encouraging them to talk . . . In terms of getting under
the skin of a small part of England, Judah has written the most
impressive book since Nick Davies' Dark Heart . . . Work like this
is vital in reminding the middle classes that poverty - the filthy
and beggarly poverty of soul-destroying drudgery and an empty
stomach - is more than a set of figures in the negative column of
the UK PLC balance sheet. It is an ineradicable feature of the
economic system on which much of the middle classes' own prosperity
depends
*Little Atoms*
Compassionate, fresh and courageous
*Spectator*
Judah grabs hold of London and shakes out its secrets. He has a
gift for ingratiating himself into very foreign surroundings and
teasing out stories. . .Judah has done an important service in
capturing the voices of those swept to the margins by economic
forces beyond their control
*Economist*
A wonderfully-written, fascinating account of modern-day life,
offering a glimpse of the world from those arriving in the city
hoping for a better life. . .an important, detailed read on the
stories of those often unheard
*Press Association*
Astonishing. . .Judah has travelled the length and breadth of the
city, talking to and empathising with those too often airbrushed
from the picture. . .As a former foreign correspondent, Judah is
the ideal guide to this new landscape. . .important and
impressive
*Sunday Telegraph*
People say Ben Judah is Orwellian. They're Right. . . . He's a
superb reporter.
*Evening Standard*
This is an important book - one that should open our eyes to the
price others often pay for our comfort.
*Daily Telegraph*
The lower depths of London today are brilliantly eviscerated in Ben
Judah’s This Is London, an Orwell for our grim times.
*Times Literary Supplement - Books of the Year 2017*
Brilliant
*Hanif Kureishi, author of The Buddha of Suburbia*
Ask a Question About this Product More... |