‘Nairn’s London’, by Ian Nairn (1966)

The best guide book to London is not really a guide book to London. In fact, Ian Nairn’s “personal list of the best things in London” may also be the best book on the city ever written.

(Ed. This piece was originally published at cityofsound.com on 7 October 2010. A half-written entry on Ian Nairn’s book ‘Nairn’s London’ had been lying dormant for almost a year at that point. But a conversation on Twitter between me, Kieran Long (of the Evening Standard), Justin McGuirk (of The Guardian), Charles Holland (of FAT), and Owen Hatherley (of Owen Hatherley and more besides) prompted me to finish the sentences and hit ‘publish’. At the time, a copy of ‘Nairn’s London’ was relatively hard to find – now you should be able to find the reissue.)

The Economist’s Christmas special (2009) had an fascinating article about being an outsider, an emigrant, a foreigner, and the role and practice of writing in terms of understanding the nature of a place. The article described the effect on perception that ‘being a foreigner’ may have:

“Foreignness is intrinsically stimulating. Like a good game of bridge, the condition of being foreign engages the mind constantly without ever tiring it. John Lechte, an Australian professor of…