Jennifer Kavanagh
Let Me Take You by the Hand: True Tales from London's Streets
A seemingly fairly random number of conversations with people who work or live on the street. It supposedly updates Mayhew's reporting but doesn't come close. And the song reference is misleading. It's very patchy and often shows that the author really doesn't know London but is dipping in and out. Seems like she thought it was a good project but really lazily executed. I did find some of the anecdotes interesting but it wasn't gripping and I gave up half way through having been subjected to a racist rant by an Australian rickshaw cyclist with no commentary or view expressed by the author. Summing up the lazy attitude to the subject. This is the second book I've read about London lives that seems targeted at those who are interested in the cosmopolitan nature of London but turn out to be channeling the right wing conservative reactionary press.
