susan earlam ~ horror author

Ah London, the big smoke.

Some of you know I went to university in London. Vast, cosmopolitan, ever-changing, densely populated, and with a huge variety of different neighbourhoods. Like any large city it has its good points and bad points, the tube on a hot summers day for example…

But one of the best and most exciting things for me personally is the sheer amount of vintage goings on in the city. The vintage scene is much bigger in London with many more people who “get it”. Don’t get me wrong Manchester and the north do it well but London is the capital city and naturally attracts the big events and more visitors.

Whenever I make a trip down south or if I just fancy a nosy at what’s on in London I go to Lena’s site The Vintage Guide to London which is extensive and covers more than you can even imagine.

So when I got sent The Rough Guide to Vintage London I half expected to see Lena’s cute face peeping out as one of the contributors I was wrong on this occasion but the book is still very good and worth picking up for a gander.

One thing I’ve always liked about Rough Guides is that they include maps as obviously they traditionally are tourist guides for cities across the world. To team up the format of the traditional Rough Guide with a specific genre like vintage really works.

Spilt into two sections- a shopping directory divided up  by geographical location and a lifestyle section with things like craft classes, speakeasies, learning to dance- even spa’s and hotels with a vintage ilk… I wish Manchester had more of this type of thing! It’d be really handy when wandering around London to have this in your handbag…

Overall I was pleasantly surprised by this book, there were places I already knew about for sure, but there was also places away from my usual London haunts which are definitely worth a visit next time I’m down. In fact there are some I cant wait to try!

Disclosure: I was sent this book for review, all  views expressed are my own.