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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #167361 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-24
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

Kevin Rushby, The Guardian
'...charming, brilliant, affectionate and quietly impassioned… …this is a wonderful book.'

Review
'Charming, brilliant, affectionate and quietly impassioned ... it manages to be balanced, humane and life-affirming. I hope it sells out faster than cases of Chalky’s "Coat de Roen"'. (Guardian 20050326)

‘Tarquin Hall is right at the heart of what he writes about . . . Hall’s new friends spring brilliantly to life off the page . . . it’s hard to imagine a more moving or more telling record of lives on the edge’ (Caroline Gascoigne, Sunday Times 20051127)

'Forthright and funny' (Daily Telegraph 20051127)

'I was absolutely riveted. It's funny, enlightening and very moving . . . I'm recommending it to all my friends just because it's such a good read.' (Kate Fox, author of Watching the English 20050601)

'He has a fine ear for the myriad speech patterns of the East End's varied inhabitants.' (Daily Mail )

‘Entertaining . . . Hall cannily plays the bewildered public schoolboy to a range of different characters . . . allows us to hear the wonderful patter of the East Enders’ (Times Literary Supplement )

'Fascinating and funny' (Sunday Times )

'Such a light, playful book and yet with a compelling tow which takes you into the myriad realities of life in the East End of London.' (Yasmin Alibhai-Brown )

‘A thought-provoking read . . . fascinating insights into fractured lives. And Hall’s affectionate portrayals of eccentric acquaintances enhance this touching portrait no end’

(Metro )

'Tender and harrowing'

(The Times )

'He brings a sharp eye and a dry humour to his descriptions'

(Anthony Sattin, Sunday Times )

‘A gem of a book that reveals a hidden world lying right on our doorstep. As the stories unfold, so does our appreciation for Tarquin Hall’s acute eye and for the gentle power of his narrative’

(Saira Shah, writer and broadcaster )

‘Salaam Brick Lane is a compelling journey of discovery by an outsider in his own city and offers an explicit glimpse of this quarter of London’

 

(Traveller )

Peter Parker, Daily Telegraph
'Forthright and funny.'

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Customer Reviews

Move Over Monica Ali!
I've just read this book in a sitting and it's absolutely brilliant.
Forget Monica Ali, Salaam Brick Lane takes you into the real East End
of today. Every page is filled with local characters and their stories,
which all combine to paint an intimate portrait of an extraordinary place
that I have visited but never known. In parts it's hilarious; in others deeply
touching. Throughout it's beautifully written. Congratulations to
Tarquin Hall on writing a fantastic book!

Superb
One of the most candid accounts of modern day life in the East End. Tarquin's account of his time on Brick Lane, and the plethora of characters that inhabit the street are rich and diverse. From asylum seekers to drug addicts; each story is a treasure. Being a resident of one of the streets coming off Brick Lane, I can identify with his accurate betrayal of the local people. Tarquin hasn't relied on naff cliché and stereotypes to write an interesting book and unlike so many books (one with a similar name!); there is no hyperbole or gratuitous exaggeration. Worthy of much praise!

Great and informative
A book that genuinely deserves the overused epithets 'funny and touching', this is a warm, wry, human look at the glorious muddle, mess and squalor of one corner of ethnic London. In the wake of the recent bombings, it was salutary to read a book that so treasured our diversity without even a nanonsecond of pomposity or preachiness. This is the London I know and love. I learnt a lot about the Bangladeshi community, and the book also offered a subtle, unfussy history of East End immigrants that set the sour The Likes of Us in proper witty perspective. Miles better than Monica Ali.