First Saturday of the month, and it’s time for the super monthly tag Six Degrees of Separation, which is hosted by Kate at Booksaremyfavouriteandbest, Six Degrees of Separation #6degrees picks a starting book for participants to go wherever it takes them in six more steps. Links to my reviews are in the titles of the books.
I’m going to be very brief this month and I’m taking you on a walking tour of South London. Our starting book is:
The End of the Affair by Graham Greene
Greene’s tale of jealousy and Catholic guilt as Maurice Bendrix can’t get over the end of his affair with Sarah. They meet at Clapham Common, where Greene lived for a time too.
The Vet’s Daughter by Barbara Comyns
This tale of the titular vet’s daughter who discovers she can levitate, is set in Edwardian times and also features a climactic scene on Clapham Common.(1)
The Paying Guests by Sarah Waters
Waters tale of a mother and daughter living in genteel poverty, who are forced to take in lodgers is set in Champion Hill, the posh end of Camberwell. (2)
The End of the Day by Claire North
North’s protagonist in this novel about the work of Death (as in the four horsemen), Charlie, who works as a harbinger on behalf of Death, lives in Dulwich. (3)
The Ballad of Peckham Rye by Muriel Spark
My favourite Spark, I’ve used it before, but couldn’t not use it here too – Peckham Rye being a South London park. (4)
Light Perpetual by Francis Spufford
Spufford’s lives imagined if they had grown up of five children killed by a WWII V2 bomb was inspired by a memorial plaque noting the death of 168 people in such a blast in November 1944. Spufford walks past it on New Cross Road each day on his way to teach at Goldsmith’s College. (5)
Open Water by Caleb Adzumah Nelson
In this wonderful romance, the second person narrator lives in Bellingham near Lewisham, and his girlfriend in Deptford a few miles north, and he spends quite a lot of time going between the two. (6)
This is where my six degrees took me this month. Where will yours take you?
Very neatly done. I like the throwaway levitation line which made me want to read the book immediately!
Thanks. It’s a super book, short too. I must read more by Barbara Comyns.
Nice tour of South London – I bought my first flat there, between Honor Oak and Hither Green, and loved the Horniman Gardens and Museum, or cycled to Crystal Palace Park. It was quite a shock when we moved outside London how quiet and how white everything was!
Thanks. Where you lived is a nice bit of South London.
I love the addition of the map! It really shows a journey. Well done!
Thanks Davida.
This was fun! I worked (just) in South London, on the Waterloo campus of King’s College London, for 5.5 years. So Lambeth was my old stomping ground.
I’m from the South London borders really – Croydon and surroundings, but we went north into South London proper regularly. A very lively area!
A clever chain and thanks for the map!
Oh, that’s clever, Annabel! 😀