Nightwalking: A Nocturnal History of London

Matthew Beaumont recounts an alternative history of London by focusing on those of its denizens who surface on the streets when the sun’s down. If nightwalking is a matter of “going astray” in the streets of the metropolis after dark, then nightwalkers represent some of the most suggestive & revealing guides to the neglected & forgotten aspects of the city.

In this brilliant work of literary investigation, Beaumont shines a light on the shadowy perambulations of poets, novelists & thinkers: Chaucer & Shakespeare; William Blake & his ecstatic peregrinations & the feverish ramblings of opium addict Thomas De Quincey; and, among the lamp-lit literary throng, the supreme nightwalker Charles Dickens. We discover how the nocturnal city has inspired some & served as a balm or narcotic to others. In each case, the city is revealed as a place divided between work & pleasure, the affluent & the indigent, where the entitled & the desperate jostle in the streets.

With a foreword & afterword by Will Self, Nightwalking is a captivating literary portrait of the writers who explore the city at night & the people they meet.