London

London: A Pilgrimage was conceived in 1868 by the journalist and playwright Blanchard Jerrold. Accompanied by the famous artist Gustave Dore, Jerrold prowled every corner of the heaving metropolis, sometimes with plain-clothes police for protection. London: A Pilgrimage is every bit a forgotten classic of social journalism, a frank and brutal look at the poverty stricken, gin-swilling London of the nineteenth century, written in a perceptive, bold and gripping style.

Blanchard Jerrold (1826–1884) was both journalist and playwright, with Cool as a Cucumber being the most successful of his plays. He was also editor of Lloyd's Weekly News and closely associated with Charles Dickens, even working as one of the contributors for Dickens' weekly periodical Household Words. Gustave Doré (1832–1883) was an amazingly gifted artist, who was known for the intensity of his engravings and was even called 'the last of the Romantics'. Among his many works are illustrated editions of Paradise Lost, The Bible and The Idylls of the Kings. Peter Ackroyd is a successful and respected author and historian with a great interest in the city of London. His many publications include London: The Biography (Chatto & Windus, 2000) and The Lambs of London (Chatto & Windus, 2004). He has also written imaginatively convincing biographies of literary greats like TS Eliot, Charles Dickens, William Blake and Thomas More.