Alight here for brilliant books
What springs to mind when you think about the tube?
Sweating profusely no matter what time of year it is?
Being crushed into a stranger’s armpit at rush hour on a Monday morning?
Waiting expectantly for the the District line for six whole minutes, even though the arrival board promised it would be there in two?
Walking in a futile circle around the panopticon maze of Bank and Monument Stations until you eventually resign yourself to the fact that you will never escape, slumping to the floor and covering yourself with discarded Metros – you are one with the station now.
We’ve certainly all got our fair share of tube woes, but In The Book have come up with an innovative idea that might help you shed your travel stress and see the London Underground in a whole new light.
London is a city like no other, and the same goes for its literature. In The Book have replaced the names of stations on TFL’s tube map with iconic staples of London literature that were set in those areas and we’re delighted to see some of Little, Brown’s titles dotted about the city!
The result is a comprehensive geographical mapping of London’s greatest novels and poems throughout history. From Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year depicting the disease-ridden city of the 17th century, right up to Robert Galbraith’s The Cuckoo’s Calling as Bond Street colouring modern day Mayfair, we feel that writing has a unique way of painting surroundings like nothing else.
For instance, we found it fascinating how certain genres and authors were married with certain parts of the map: Dickens’ London dominates the Central Line, while gothic Victorian works Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and The Picture of Dorian Gray can all be found haunting the Piccadilly Line. Zadie Smith’s works were located on the northwest Jubilee Line while Martin Amis’ novels were more prominent around West London.
To view an expandable version of the map please visit the In The Book.
How many of our Little, Brown titles did you spot?
This book is the very simple story of the love affair between Miss Helene Hanff of New York and Messrs Marks and Co, sellers of rare and secondhand books, at 84 Charing Cross Road, London'. DAILY TELEGRAPH
Told in a series of letters in 84 CHARING CROSS ROAD and then in diary form in the second part THE DUCHESS OF BLOOMSBURY STREET, this true story has touched the hearts of thousands.
A BBC TWO BETWEEN THE COVERS BOOK CLUB PICK (BOOKER PRIZE GEMS)
The book that inspired Park Chan-wook's astonishing film The Handmaiden.
Shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize
London 1862. Sue Trinder, orphaned at birth, grows up among petty thieves - fingersmiths - under the rough but loving care of Mrs Sucksby and her 'family'. But from the moment she draws breath, Sue's fate is linked to that of another orphan growing up in a gloomy mansion not too many miles away.
The seventy-fifth anniversary edition, with a new introduction by Anthony Quinn.
'I recommend Hamilton at every opportunity, because he was such a wonderful writer and yet is rather under-read today. All his novels are terrific' Sarah Waters
'If you were looking to fly from Dickens to Martin Amis with just one overnight stop, then Hamilton is your man' Nick Hornby
Patrick Hamilton's novels were the inspiration for Matthew Bourne's new dance theatre production, The Midnight Bell.
London, 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation. Netta is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George. George is adrift in a drunken hell, except in his 'dead' moments, when something goes click in his head and he realises, without a doubt, that he must kill her. In the darkly comic Hangover Square Patrick Hamilton brilliantly evokes a seedy, fog-bound world of saloon bars, lodging houses and boozing philosophers, immortalising the slang and conversational tone of a whole generation and capturing the premonitions of doom that pervaded London life in the months before the war.
Welcome to Corduroy Mansions in Pimlico: a temple of Arts and Crafts architecture, with comforting, weathered brickwork and frankly frivolous dormer windows, it is home to a delightfully eccentric cast of Londoners.
In the top flat lives William, with a faithful ex-vegetarian dog named Freddie de la Hay and a freeloading son who he hopes will soon fly the nest. Four lively young women share the first-floor flat, including twinset-and-pearls Caroline from Cheltenham, Dee, vitamin addict and avid subscriber to Anti-oxidant News, and Jenny, a put-upon PA. And round the corner lives Oedipus Snark MP, possibly the world's only loathsome Lib Dem, who has succeeded in offending everyone he knows, and many others besides. But what dark revenge is being plotted by his mother, Berthea Snark, and by his girlfriend, Barbara Ragg...?
The classic and terrifying HG Wells novel of alien invasion is now a landmark series for the BBC from the makers of Poldark, Victoria and And Then There Were None.
One night a shooting star is seen over the skies of Surrey. The next day, it's discovered to have been a mysterious metallic cylinder from Mars. What comes next is a terrifying alien attack, as tentacled Martian invaders emerge from the cylinder and prey on humankind using shocking new weapons against which the people of Victorian England can offer no resistance.
The aliens begin to devastate the area in their tripod machines, and as our narrator struggles to return to his wife, the fight for London - and the world - begins.
Now with a new introduction by Stephen Baxter.
'A true classic'
GUARDIAN
'Immortal science fiction'
TELEGRAPH
Dracula
by Bram Stoker
by Colm Toibin
No book since Mrs Shelley's Frankenstein, or indeed any other at all has come near yours in originality, or terror - Poe is nowhere..."-Charlotte Stoker (Mother of Bram Stoker).
Originally published in 1897, Bram Stoker's Dracula has spawned countless new editions, inspired over fifty films, and hundreds of reimaginings. The iconic and terrifying character of Stoker's imagination has permeated our conciousness in such away that Dracula is the seminal vampire of popular culture.
Set across London and into the darkest corners of Eastern Europe, Dracula is told through the journal entries and letters of its protagonists as they strive to survive the presence of Count Dracula in their lives. Young lawyer Jonathan Harker travels to Transylvania to assist in a land transaction, but finds himself trapped in the Count's castle, tormented by strange and unearthly occurrences. After a miraculous escape, he returns to England, only to find that the Count has followed him to London and has begun tracking his fiancé, Mina...
Reprinted in its original form, this edition of Dracula is perfect for a first time reader, or as a classic to keep forever.
***The 7th novel in the Strike series, THE RUNNING GRAVE, is coming in September 2023. Pre-order now and be the first to read it***
'The Cuckoo's Calling reminds me why I fell in love with crime fiction in the first place' VAL MCDERMID
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Now a major BBC drama: The Strike series
When a troubled model falls to her death from a snow-covered Mayfair balcony, it is assumed that she has committed suicide. However, her brother has his doubts, and calls in private investigator Cormoran Strike to look into the case.
Strike is a war veteran - wounded both physically and psychologically - and his life is in disarray. The case gives him a financial lifeline, but it comes at a personal cost: the more he delves into the young model's complex world, the darker things get - and the closer he gets to terrible danger . . .
A gripping, elegant mystery steeped in the atmosphere of London - from the hushed streets of Mayfair to the backstreet pubs of the East End to the bustle of Soho - The Cuckoo's Calling is a remarkable book. Introducing Cormoran Strike, this is the acclaimed first crime novel by J.K. Rowling, writing under the pseudonym Robert Galbraith.
*** The latest book in the thrilling Strike series, TROUBLED BLOOD, is out now! ***
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PRAISE FOR THE STRIKE SERIES:
'One of the most unique and compelling detectives I've come across in years' MARK BILLINGHAM
'The work of a master storyteller' DAILY TELEGRAPH
'Unputdownable. . . Irresistible' SUNDAY TIMES
'Will keep you up all night' OBSERVER
'A thoroughly enjoyable classic' PETER JAMES, SUNDAY EXPRESS
