LONDON AND THE 17TH CENTURY
THE MAKING OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST CITY
MARGARETTE LINCOLN
Yale, 372pp, £25
Margarette Lincoln, whose previous books have been about seafaring, has chosen the right moment for this new departure and, as John Carey wrote in the Sunday Times, ‘it is thrilling from the first page’.
Nigel Jones in the Spectator agreed that ‘the current pandemic lends this sparkling study of London in its most decisive century a grim topicality’, for the 17th century was one of civil war, regicide, plague, fire, but also of expansive growth, making London one of the world’s greatest cities. ‘Lincoln’s colourful canvas is both chronicle and an ever-shifting panorama — a vivid portrayal of a metropolis in the grip of alarming, bewildering and constant change,’ he added.
Ben Wilson in the Times noted that Lincoln ‘not only takes us through the maze of this magnificently chaotic city, but skilfully interweaves the political convulsions that dogged it through the century. Dangerous, diseased and jerry-built as London was, it thrived as international trade proliferated, almost impervious to the turmoil of civil strife, foreign wars, revolution, and plague.’
‘Refreshingly, Lincoln’s witnesses include not only the famous diarists Pepys and Evelyn, but less celebrated reporters,’ Jones noted; and ‘Hardly any aspect of the city’s teeming scenes escapes her.… The sheer volume of dazzling dates sometimes seems overwhelming.’
‘Her book speaks to the resilience of cities: they can withstand all kinds of disasters; opulence grows in the mire,’ Wilson wrote assuringly.
‘If you want to know how it felt to be in the city when it previously faced and overcame such epochal events,’ Jones concluded, then this is the book for you.’