Neil Hopcroft

Neverwhere [Paperback, read to self]

I chose this book as my companion for my adventures at the hospital last September – it has been slow progress because it has accompanied me to medical appointments of various sorts since then, for which the waiting times have left little reading time. Of this, I am grateful. I prefer quick appointments and slow books.

This choice was made before the disappointing revelations about the darker side of the writers character, I encountered no comments from others in the waiting rooms – I suspect I live within an echo chamber where these things are important but that the rest of the world likely doesn’t even know who he is.

As for the book itself, it falls into the category of ordinary person in extraordinary circumstances – Richard falls into another London, one which contains familiar things considered in unfamiliar ways. These things seem like the ramblings of a drunken person who has woken in the morning to find a recording of the previous nights conversation and decided to turn it into a world and subject an innocent person to its madness.

I found many of the main characters to be pretentious, they largely come from the aristocracy of London Below, and suffer a similar disconnect evident in the aristocracy of society above.

The writing itself portrays a vivid reality, bringing to life those drunken ramblings, with the tube map being the inspiration for a journey through the city and people encountered on the way.

Bringing together this world of fiction and the reality of Iain Sinclair’s The Last London would make for an amazing book, if anybody is wanting for a challenge.

I didn’t get on with the series when I first tried to watch it, now, having finished the book, I should give it another try.