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Celebrate the secret world in words! Photo: Cambridge Circus Sign – © David Charnick 2020 What’s your preference – George Smiley or James Bond? Both feature in this exploration of the shadowy world of secret agents in fiction. The tour features site-specific readings – some obvious, some much less so! Join me in a literary…
Read moreCelebrate the great defender – Rumpole of the Bailey! Photo: The Recording Angel, Central Criminal Court – © David Charnick 2020 Fortified with Château Thames Embankment, and overseen by She Who Must Be Obeyed, Rumpole of the Bailey devotes his time to keeping errant humanity out of chokey. Join me to explore Rumpole’s legal world…
Read moreCelebrate the many sides of Dictionary Johnson! Photo: Samuel Johnson by Percy Fitzgerald (detail), St Clement Danes – © David Charnick 2022 In 1737 a teacher with an uncertain future arrived in London in the company of one of his former pupils. The former pupil was David Garrick, who would become one of the most…
Read moreUncover a secret world of intelligence activity in St James’s Photo: St Ermin’s Hotel, Caxton Street – © David Charnick 2023 The St James’s area is redolent with history. It has traditional shops, some going back to the eighteenth and even seventeenth centuries. It has Jermyn Street, famous for its style. And of course it…
Read moreExplore the Shadowy World of the Secret Services! Photo: Vauxhall Cross from Vauxhall Bridge – © David Charnick 2020 The world of British Intelligence is dominated by the Security Service (MI5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). But the story of intelligence gathering and covert operations goes way beyond these two bodies. This tour considers…
Read moreCelebrate literary Bethnal Green – in So Many Words! Photo © 2016 Alan Tucker – Cheshire Street (formerly Hare Street) Bethnal Green’s story is one rich in variety. Many authors have sought to engage with the human currents of Bethnal Green and to capture its unique flavour. The tour features readings from the writings of…
Read moreTune in to echoes of Shakespeare in the City of London! Photo – Monument to John Heminges and Henry Condell (detail) © 2020 David Charnick The City of London bears a wealth of reminders of the presence of William Shakespeare. This tour is an imaginative exploration of the City which – with the help of…
Read moreCelebrate the City through the words of Shakespeare and Co! Photo: Thomas Gresham depicted at the Royal Exchange – © David Charnick 2021 London’s Elizabethan and Jacobean playwrights transported their audiences to strange, imaginary worlds. But they were ready also to hold a mirror up to the citizens of London. The reflections were sometimes less…
Read moreExplore Peter Ackroyd’s shadowy East End! Photo: St Anne Limehouse (detail) – © 2018 Alan Tucker Peter Ackroyd’s is one of the authentic voices of London: his novels, histories, biographies and so much more capture the rhythms of the city. This tour celebrates his portrayal of the riverside East End as a place of monsters…
Read moreGet the inside stories of a major Tudor power struggle! Photo: Gatehouse, Charterhouse – © Fayita Bonita 2016 In 1522 Henry VIII was desperate to secure an heir to the throne who couldn’t be challenged, plunging the country back into the civil war from which the Tudor dynasty emerged in 1485. So he began to…
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