HEART OF LONDON
LONDON GENERAL, by Frederick Willis; Phoenix House, through A. H. and A. W. Reed, English price 18/-. T HESE Edwardian reminiscences of a Cockney hatter strike me as a rather better than what went before101 Jubilee Road and Peace and Dripping Toast-which is saying a good deal. The book shows the same astonishing eye for the varied aspects of life which Mr. Willis’s avid mind and warm heart explored; the same Dickensian flavour of London; the same love of packed humanity, including the little side-street pub, where you got "intelli. gent conversation, honest laughter and good fellowship," and no one tried to organise anything. Here, however, the canvas is wider and the painting more mature. One meets a greater variety of people, from peers to barmaids. Like the other volumes, this book is social history and can be especially recommended to those who love London. This London was receiving the first instalments of the Welfare State, which were to make the spectre of old age less grim and lessen the ever-present fear that fierce competition might at any moment drop you jn the gutter with nothing to break the fall. Yet it was an age of confidence and irrepressible good humour, of cheerfulness and charity. One reason why Frederick Willis is worth reading is that he shows how easy it is to get enjoyment out of what lies to hand. He knows a great deal about life, but retains the heart
ot a child.
M.
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New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 14
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248HEART OF LONDON New Zealand Listener, Volume 30, Issue 769, 15 April 1954, Page 14
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