You will never live here

A list of particularly literary books for those that wish an approxiamate The London Experience:

Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier - A collection of fantastical short stories which will supplant in you with the proper definition of "wry."

What a Carve Up! by Jonathan Coe - There are about 3 dozen "Thatcher" novels (most recently The Line of Beauty), each with its own brand of invective against the steamroll of PM of the 80s. This is an exposition on those years which is most excessible and personified deliciously by a ruthless family of Leeds.

Lud Heat and London Orbital by Iain Sinclair - This man is amazing. He's a compendium of London esoterica, a purveuor of the nefarious and occult influences on London culture. Lud Heat is a collection of prose poems, most notable a survey of the Hawksmoor churches that were constructed alond astral lines and reference much Egyptian architecture and mythology. Orbital is Sinclair's travelogue of follwing the M25, the giant ring-road that encircles London, and finding various and sundry adventures in the abandoned regions therein.

Collected Letters of Julian McClaren-Ross - The prototypical dandy. Ross wrote a few novels, short stories, but the real adventure was his own life, which goes from origins in Havana and Saudi to becoming a notorious London personality and denizen of the pubs of Fitzrovia. The British would never condone the adjective "gonzo" for extensive use, but Ross most approximates the quirks and intrepid attitude of the word, albeit in a more refined way.