Originally published in 1951.
Journalist and travel writer Henry Vollam Morton was
born in 1892 near Manchester, England and became an international
celebrity by scooping the world's press in the sensational
discovery of Tutankhamen's tomb in the early 1920's. His
followed this success with a series of extraordinary popular
vignettes on English city and country life.
In In Search of London, Morton turned his traveller's
intuition and reporter's eye for detail to the city that
fascinated him since childhood—London past, present,
and timeless. He explores the City and the Temple, Covent
Garden, SoHo, and all the "submerged villages beneath
the flood of bricks and mortar," uncovering layer
upon layer of London's history. Morton follows the thread
of imagination back and forth across the city, tracing
unforgettable scenes: the Emperor Claudius leading his
war elephants across the Thames. . .the grisly executions
at the Tower. . .the world of Shakespeare, Dickens, and
Queen Victoria. . .and the shattered yet defiant city
of the Blitz as well as the postwar London of "ruins
and hatless crowds." Morton's quest for London's
heart reveals how its daily life is rooted in a past that
is closer and more familiar than we might think, making
the book as informative, entertaining, and rich in human
color today as when it was written almost sixty years
ago.
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