Curiocity
  • Published: 15 July 2018
  • ISBN: 9780141980799
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $55.00

Curiocity

In Pursuit Of London

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'The greatest book about London published in modern times ... an illuminated manuscript for the 21st century city' - Londonist

Curiocity is a new A to Z exploring every aspect of life in London. Its 26 chapters weave together the city's stories with striking reflections, practical ideas and itineraries, and contributions from London voices such as Monica Ali and Iain Sinclair. The book is illustrated by artists including Chris Riddell, Isabel Greenberg and Steven Appleby, and at the heart of each chapter is an original hand-drawn map, charting everything from the city's international communities, underground spaces and children's dreams, to its unrealised plans, erogenous zones and dystopian futures. Curiocity is a unique guide that will transform the way you see and experience London.
  • Published: 15 July 2018
  • ISBN: 9780141980799
  • Imprint: Penguin Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 464
  • RRP: $55.00
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About the authors

Henry Eliot

Henry Eliot is the author of The Penguin Classics Book and the presenter of the podcast On the Road with Penguin Classics. He has organized various literary tours, including a mass public pilgrimage for the National Trust (inspired by William Morris), a recreation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, which raised money for the National Literacy Trust, a Lake Poets tour of Cumbria and a quest for the Holy Grail based on Malory's Morte D'Arthur. He is also the author of Follow This Thread: A Maze Book to Get Lost In and Curiocity: An Alternative A to Z of London.

Praise for Curiocity

The most ingenious, insightful, inspiring, intoxicating, and simply interesting guide to the great city that I have ever seen

Philip Pullman

Remarkable ... a nerdy Londoner's paradise ... an exquisite 450-page cross between an encyclopaedia and an artwork

Evening Standard

The greatest book about London published in modern times ... an illuminated manuscript for the 21st century city

Londonist

London's bookshops and libraries are filled with printed guides to the city but few (if any) are as comprehensive as Curiocity

Creative Review

Utterly extraordinary

Tom Holland

An endlessly fascinating guide to London ... an eccentric lexical juggernaut ... I doubt that anything of such crazy magnitude will be attempted again in a hurry

Evening Standard

A glorious treasure trove

Esquire

The authors' delight in London trivia is infectious

Guardian

A beautifully produced miscellany of fascinating facts about London. Wonderful illustrations are added to intriguing nuggets of information on a huge range of subjects from street cries to earthstars. An object of beauty in itself

The Oldie

Reimagines the 'guidebook' in the same way that Peter Ackroyd's London: the Biography reinvented historical writing about the capital. And just as Ackroyd set a benchmark, every new guide to London will now be viewed with reference to Curiocity. [...] However well you think you know London, you will discover something new on virtually every page, and the things you know well will be seen completely differently. Highly recommended

The London Society

Beautifully illustrated, quirky and irreverent

Danny Dorling

Incredibly clever and gorgeous. It's like a London treasure hunt - an unexpected explorers' map of a city I've lived in all my life and thought I knew

Bidisha

Here is something different [...] composed of fresh flashes of insight [...] constructed as a cabinet of curiosities, the literary equivalent of Sir John Soane's Museum in Lincoln's Inn Fields. The work [the authors] have put into it is formidable, the collaboration they have won from contributors, illustrators and publishers quite breathtaking.

Times Literary Supplement

A great walk for the senses

Iain Sinclair

A glorious and delightful compendium and guide to London from Above, Below and all the in-betweens

Neil Gaiman