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BOOK NEWS is intended to present news and opinions about recent and forthcoming titles.For instance: MARY COSH the author, inter alia of "The Squares of Islington" and a resident of Islington for many years has just published her HISTORY OF ISLINGTON. It is the fifth book to be published on the subject in the last half century, but, as her publisher said at a party in the Islington Museum to launch it, it is the most comprehensive since "Nelson's" in1811. She starts with medieval times and continues up to 2005 but the bulk of the book is devoted to the Eighteenth and Nineteeth centuries when Islington expanded to become a full scale suburb of the City of London. One of her themes is that while the borough has been seen as both fashionable and as a slum, there has usually been a co-existance of the two-something which residents will recognise better than the political/literary caricature more often portrayed. The story is told chronolgically but the chapters are thematic;"Merry Islington" is followed by "Spiritual Vicissitudes" and "Still Merrier" (describing the rise of the pleasure gardens, spas and Sadler's Wells.) Mary Cosh covers her subject widely, from local government and religion to transport and shops in this well produced and illustrated book. |