London by Edward Rutherfurd

I truly believe that if you are a reader then you are able to learn just about anything. Although I was a fairly good student and took honor classes, certain things never interested me in school. I do love history, and I certainly know a lot of American History and in school they touched on World History but it wasn’t highly in depth. Since this whole Royal Wedding excitement is happening I thought it would be great to learn about the History of England (well more specifically London). Edward Rutherfurd is a wonderful historical fiction writer and I read one of his books New York a couple months ago. Rutherfurd likes to build a tapestry of a fictional family tree(s) while writing about the history of the time. About two weeks ago I bought London and started reading it.

As expected the book has over 1,000 pages. I knew it was going to take me a couple weeks to finish it, especially because of the historical aspects. The first pages of the book contain three maps starting from the Roman times of London, Shakespeare’s’ London, to the current map of London. There is also a very detailed family tree, explaining the major families in the story; Duckets, Doggerts, Silversleeves, Barnikle, Penny and Carpenter to name a few. Rutherfurd is very talented in creating these characters and often helps you identify who is related to whom by some similar characteristic (for instance the Duckets have a silver streak in their hair and have webbed fingers, as do the Doggets). The families ranging from the very wealthy to the very poor show us the different ways that people lived during that time.

London begins with the formation on the River Thames and the introduction of a fishing family who settled in pre-Roman London (then called Londinium). This family interacts with several interesting characters like the Norman conquerors, the Anglo’s and the Saxons and creates their own history. Shortly after other families are introduced and all their lives are intertwined within the backdrop of the relevant histories that took place in London.

I certainly learned a lot about London and the English culture. For instance that high tea is a new thing that was brought to London from Asia. I loved learning about the building and formation of the Globe Theatre. I especially loved the tragic yet thrilling separation of Catholicism and Protestant religion during Henry VIII and Elizabeth I.

I do admit there were some really boring parts as well. I was also confused a lot by the family tree and was always looking back at the tree. I felt a little cheated because with about fifty characters you can’t really form a really emotional and strong relationship with the characters.

I recommend this book to anyone that likes to read about history but not in a history book and recommend that you have a lot of patience as it is over 1,100 pages. I didn’t really enjoy the ending and I feel that Rutherfurd ran out of things to say and didn’t exactly tie in the loose ends.

I give it a 7 out of 10.

For all those wondering my next book will be a lot lighter, with just over 400 pages