Book of the Month April 2024

London Orbital

This past month we have mostly been in an urban environment. Searching city streets for places of interest, scraping back the layers of time to find traces of ancient history and the people and places that make a city what it is today. In London Orbital, Iain Sinclair is a master of uncovering the stories and lives, the folklore, legends and the liminal spaces that border the M25 motorway. We begin with Bill Drummond and Gimpo (from various KLF masterplans and bizarre happenings) who join Iain on the first leg of the walk, from the very begining we were completely hooked and along for the long walk and all that it would involve. A classic psychogeographic masterpiece.

“In this volume Iain Sinclair sets out to map the vast stretch of urban settlement outside London bounded by the M25. His long journeys - from the Lea Valley to Uxbridge, from Staines to South Mimms - are flanked by the black clouds of smoke from burning carcasses as the foot and mouth panic takes hold. Here he uncovers a history of forgotten villages, suburban utopias and hellish asylums, now transformed into upmarket housing, all the while walking a disappearing landscape, as the countryside is engulfed by commerce.”