Six Degrees of Separation: The End of the Affair

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?

10 thoughts on “Six Degrees of Separation: The End of the Affair

  1. MarinaSofia says:

    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!

    • AnnaBookBel says:

      I’m from the South London borders really – Croydon and surroundings, but we went north into South London proper regularly. A very lively area!

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