London: Tea Time in Wonderland

You probably know Tracy Chevalier for her first novel, Girl with a pearl earring, a little treasure also adapted on the big screen. Wonderfully depicted and inspired by Vermeer and his paintings, elegant and fascinating.

With Burning Bright, the author focuses on late 18th century London. The intrigue is a bit too easy for me but the painting of this Georgian London really got me through the book. So lively, buzzing, real! The Lambeth of another time, the hundreds of forgotten simple and amazing small jobs, from laundry to making buttons… the atmosphere of pubs at the time, in which kids joined in, exploitation of employees in the industries, the herness of the job, here in a mustard factory, the red neighbourhood of Soho, the poverty of St Giles… Other stories weave themselves through the story: the influence of the French Revolution, modern ideas on the verge of treason, the local association pressurising people into signing their allegeance to the King: of course you weren’t free to choose your political views at the time. But alo the famous William Blake, free thinker and famous poet who did live in Lambeth.

Interesting to learn about the Astley circus, at the foot of Westminster bridge. It started as an equastrian show and quickly evolved to pantomines, juggling, rope-walking, fireworks… Chevalier suceeds to paint both the atmosphere of the shows and the surrounding activities. The wooden building will burn down several times and be quickly rebuilt each time: you are placed in the middle of the repetitions, the carpenters building new decors around them, the children waiting around for any opportunity to earn a penny… or learn a piece of gossip whihc could in turn be moneyed into a favour.

An ideal book if you’re traveling: easy to start, put down, start again. I loved discovering a different facet of London, this era being more rarely covered, authors usually prefering Henry VIII, Elisabethean or Victorian times. Makes walking through the streets a bit more magical superposing two different frames…

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