4. How did London Bridge end up in Arizona?
The new book by acclaimed author, Travis Elborough, is already garnering nice reviews from the likes of the Guardian (who describe his prose as “so tasty, so rich and so smooth that it resembles both custard and cream”) and the Daily Mail.
And the topic is indeed intriguing. London Bridge in America: The Tall Story of a Transatlantic Crossing (Jonathan Cape) tells the wonderfully improbable story of how the seventeeth century incarnation of SE1’s beloved bridge got sold to an Arizona oil baron in the 1960s.
The book recounts a much broader story than simply the extraordinary event of this granite structure being dismantled stone by stone and rebuilt over Lake Havasu. But the scene about the opening ceremony in sweltering Arizona desert heat, complete with London’s Lord Mayor, Cornish pasties and dancing pearlie kings and queens sounds quite brilliant.
Fancy a free taster? If you are anywhere near Crystal Palace tonight, you can hear Elborough reading from his book at the lovely Bookseller Crow bookshop.
Call to register (for free) for the reading tonight, at Bookseller Crow on the Hill, 50 Westow St, London, Crystal Palace SE19. Tel: 020 8771 8831 or do so online via Eventbrite.
Next: Fresh Meat meets freeganism on stage in Kennington
