 | The Gilt Kid by James Curtis
Buy new: £8.17 / Used from: £3.47 1936. A breathtaking ride through underworld Soho in the 1930s, written in the arcane vernacular of the day by one of the great forgotten 20th Century English writers.
|
 | Wide Boys Never Work by Robert Westerby
Buy new: £6.89 / Used from: £8.84 1937. Dog track gangs, gay tough guys, seedy clubs, used car dealers
what's not to love? Up there with the best of James Curtis in its depiction of London's seamy underbelly.
|
 | Night and the City by Gerald Kersh
Buy new: £7.98 / Used from: £4.73 1937. Flawed but with some real high points, and a classic low-life icon in the shape of Harry Fabian. Good scenes set in Soho clip joints that probably aren't much different today.
|
 | Twenty Thousand Streets Under the Sky (Vintage Classics) by Patrick Hamilton
Buy new: £6.61 / Used from: £3.24 1929-35. Hamilton's first real masterpiece (although Craven House is excellent too). As all his best work, it's both hilarious and heartbreaking.
|
 | Hangover Square: A Story of Darkest Earl's Court (Penguin Modern Classics) by Patrick Hamilton
Buy new: £6.47 / Used from: £3.55 1941. George Bone's desparate, pathetic and sometimes homicidal pursuit of the heartless Netta.
|
 | London Belongs to Me (Penguin Modern Classics) by Norman Collins
Buy new: £6.81 / Used from: £2.62 1947. Not unlike Angel Pavement in its aims, it's not quite as good and feels overlong - but still highly recommended.
|
 | There ain't no justice by James Curtis
1937. If you can find a copy
Curtis's hard-hitting story of a young boxer, set in the notorious slum district of Notting Dale.
|
| You're in the racket, too, by James Curtis
1938. Also hard to find, but a riotous, cynical depiction of a London in which everyone is out for themselves and themselves alone. Begins in Bruce House - then, as now, a hostel for the homeless.
|
 | Keep the Aspidistra Flying (Penguin Modern Classics) by George Orwell
Buy new: £5.71 / Used from: £2.93 1936. Would-be poet Gordon Comstock quits his safe job and descends into paralysing poverty.
|
 | They Drive by Night (London Books) by James Curtis
Buy new: £6.89 / Used from: £4.46 1938. Not exclusively London-set, but another Curtis classic encompassing a runaway ex-con, long-distance lorry drivers and a chillingly believable serial killer.
|
Listmania!
