Finding Home in a New City Through History and Urban Fantasy

I grew up studying British literature and had all the time harbored a want to reside in London for a whereas. Last yr, after a informal dialogue with my associate concerning the prospect of spending a yr or two working overseas, that shortly escalated to a cross-country switch throughout the group the place we each labored, together with our doggo daughter Cookie, we discovered ourselves in London.

Despite having learn extra real looking and up to date portrayals of England and London and being conscious of the nation’s difficult historical past, my pleasure and expectations of life in England had been based mostly on Enid Blyton, Jane Austen, The Great British Baking Show, The Great Interior Design Challenge, and The Great British Sewing Bee. One can, thus, think about my disappointment after I arrived in London one not-so-fine gloomy October afternoon to search out out that Londoners didn’t stand at road corners ready to strike up conversations about literature, artwork, and gardening. We couldn’t have chosen a worse time for our transfer: we moved on the onset of winter, in the wake of a extreme financial downturn. I discovered myself disoriented, severely anxious, and unmoored, struck by a homesickness that I had by no means felt earlier than regardless of having lived away from my hometown since I used to be 16.

I had come throughout this sense of being an outsider in fiction earlier than, in The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri or in the wonderful Brick Lane by Monica Ali. But validation isn’t what I wanted when I discovered myself in this case. I wanted the town to let me in on its secrets and techniques, to permit me a glimpse of its messy, difficult, cosmopolitan coronary heart past obligatory journeys to see the London Bridge and Big Ben, the commute to work, or weekly grocery runs in our new neighborhood. I bought that first in city fantasy and then in historical past books.

I learn Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman on the peak of winter. I used to be amazed by how nicely this e book captured the spirit of the town, all its contradictions and quirks, with good humor and compassion for the individuals who “fall through the cracks” in a fast-moving, usually uncaring, however numerous and multicultural metropolis. Neverwhere is darkish and additionally optimistic and has made my tube rides many occasions extra pleasant. I can by no means take a look at Blackfriars and Earl’s Court the identical manner once more. Not able to step out of magical London but, I picked up Kraken by China Miéville subsequent.

The Natural History Museum was one of many first locations I visited in London. Its assortment fascinated me and impressed awe, marvel, curiosity, and advanced emotions concerning the colonial historical past behind a massive portion of the displays. Kraken, a e book that unfolds round a big squid stolen from the Natural History Museum, was a no-brainer studying alternative for me. But I used to be not ready for the wild journey it turned out to be.

While Gaiman takes us to a totally different, parallel London Below, Miéville’s magical London hides in plain sight — in the darkish corners of its century-old streets. Kraken acknowledges the best way the town’s previous and current have been entwined with the historical past of the broader world. It is violent, gory, and deliciously bizarre. But regardless of the uninhibited strangeness of the plot, the story has bought its finger firmly on the heart beat of a metropolis that’s, on the identical time, scary and accepting, trendy and historical. This e book rendered me breathless with the innovativeness of its exploration of the character of religion and its explosive ending — there couldn’t have been a higher setting for this story.

Since studying Kraken, I’ve learn Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch. I preferred the descriptions of the town in this e book and Toby, the unintentional canine sidekick, however my enjoyment of the e book was considerably hampered by the narrator’s childish, leering gaze towards nearly all the ladies he comes throughout.

These days, I stroll across the streets of London with historical past in my ears — I take heed to the good Empire podcast by Anita Anand and William Dalrymple or to snippets from Peter Ackroyd’s expansive London: The Biography. I hold my eyes peeled for the blue plaques: I’ve walked previous the location of a home Darwin lived in, the residence of suffragette princess Sophia Duleep Singh (Anita Anand’s Sophia is an pleasant and essential biography of her), and the home of suffragette and writer Milicent Fawcett. I’ve discovered of the difficult historical past of abolition in Britain and found that the Holy Trinity Church, which was on the coronary heart of the English motion to finish slave commerce, is a lengthy, nice stroll from the place I reside.

When I come throughout colonial relics like statues of politicians and navy males who had been liable for the oppression of my nation and museums filled with artifacts plundered from my homeland and different Asian and African international locations, I really feel upset and offended. I learn concerning the methods in which individuals and actions from the erstwhile colonies have formed English society, politics, and tradition in books like Insurgent Empire by Priyamvada Gopal, Empireland by Sathnam Sanghera, and The Hungry Empire by Lizzie Collingham. I really feel fortunate to be right here at a time when historians are addressing the troublesome questions of the previous in compelling narratives and when extra and extra individuals are questioning the legacy of their nation’s colonizing previous.

For me, India will all the time be house. But till I’m going again, I’ve discovered to derive consolation from London’s unquestioning acceptance cloaked in indifference and roam the town trying to find literary and historic Easter eggs in the corporate of some fabulous new books.