My Favourite London Devils
by Iain Sinclair
(Tangerine Press, £10)

IN MY favourite London Devils, Iain Sinclair takes the reader on a tour through a London that barely exists in a collection of reviews, interviews and essays that’s an enjoyable and occasionally informative read.

In essays about well-known authors such as JG Ballard, Arthur Conan Doyle and Angela Carter as well as lesser known figures — Arthur Machen, Thomas Homes and Robert Westerby — Sinclair muses on the importance of London in their writing lives and the importance of their writing lives to London.

One thing Sinclair’s subjects share is that they are almost all white men, most of whom are dead, a point emphasised by David Kean’s portraits before the beginning of every chapter.

Kean is a skilful artist, but his quasi-caricature style gives these drawings a “club house mantelpiece” feeling.

Maybe this is missing the point but Sinclair seems to be at his best when he is at his most factual and straightforward. The chapters on Conan Doyle and Ballard are the book’s highlights because they evoke a sense of the writer and, crucially, they make you want to read their books.

Pieces on “true Hackney writers” such as Arthur Machen and Thomas Homes are poetically done but give the sense that Sinclair has read their work so we don’t have to.

His fans will not be disappointed with this collection. Yet if you are looking for concrete factual information about London literary life and nothing but, best look elsewhere.

Review by Jack Dunleavy

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