Susan Alice Fischer
The Literary London Journal, Volume 10 Number 1 (Spring 2013)
<1>It is hard to believe that the modest, but vastly exciting conference that Lawrence Phillips began in 2002 at Goldsmiths College University of London has blossomed into an sizeable annual event at the heart of London and has led more recently to the formation of the Literary London Society. An early offshoot of that initiating moment was the journal, Literary London: Interdisciplinary Studies in the Representation of London. As it has come to be known by its shorthand name as the Literary London Journal, we have decided to retitle it from this issue. (We are also moving to a Spring and Autumn publication schedule.)
<2>After working tirelessly on the Journal since its inception, Lawrence Phillips, the founding editor, has now moved on to other projects, though he remains involved in the Society. The former book reviews editor, I have now become editor and Susie Thomas, another long-time Literary Londoner, has taken over the reviews, and together we have edited this issue. I would also like to welcome two new Editorial Board members, Graham MacPhee and Nicolas Tredell. Many others have generously participated in the peer review process for this and the upcoming issue, and we are grateful to them.
<3>We open this issue of the Literary London Journal with two full-length essays, both on Virginia Woolf. Susan Trangmar’s photographic study looks at the recurrence of trees in Woolf’s writing and in her own photographs of London, while Petar Penda examines the political terrain in Mrs Dalloway.
<4>Numerous reviews follow, starting with two recent novels. Nicolas Tredell examines Martin Amis’s Lionel Asbo: State of England, while Martin Upham takes a critical eye to John Lanchester’s Capital.
<5>Three reviewers discuss books that take a longer historical look at representations of London. Phoebe Dickerson examines a history of London poetry by Mark Ford, while Tzu Yu Allison Lin looks at Ian Cunningham’s guide to London writers. Wendy Kolmar’s review considers a reissue of the Victorian Garvarni in London, originally from 1849. We return to the present with Alexander Clelland’s assessment of Craig Taylor’s book that gives voice to contemporary Londoners’ experiences of the life cycle in the city.
<6>An appraisal of three contemporary scholarly studies follows. Holly Prescott reviews Sebastian Groes’s The Making of London: London in Contemporary Literature, and David Charnick assesses Berkem Gürenci Saglam’s book about Peter Ackroyd’s London. James Heartfield reviews Matthew Taunton’s study of culture and mass housing in contemporary London and Paris.
<7>We end with Holly Prescott’s look back at the 2012 Literary London Conference. We hope this will inspire readers to attend the 2013 Conference and also encourage writers interested in literary and other representations of London to submit articles for consideration.
To Cite This Article:
Susan Alice Fischer, ‘Editorial’. The Literary London Journal, Volume 10 Number 1 (Spring 2013). Online at http://www.literarylondon.org/london-journal/spring2013/editorial.html. Accessed on [date of access].