- What is the
London Adventure?
- The name
for this informal
literary club has been taken from Machen's third volume
of autobiography, The London Adventure or The Art Of
Wandering. The
intention for the club is for members to participate in
regular meetings at London locations connected with
obscure or neglected authors. Other literary personages,
such as illustrators and publishers, could also be
subjects of meetings. Special attention could be given to
anniversaries - births, deaths, publications, and other
significant occasions. Members are requested to take on
the leadership of future meetings, guiding the club
around places related to their chosen subject. Other
participants are encouraged to contribute by sharing
their thoughts and questions, and with readings from
works by or about the subject.
- These shall not be
guided tours so much as inquiries, explorations and
celebrations. All walks are free.
- For further information,
comments, suggestions and contributions, please
contact:
- Nicolas Granger-Taylor,
35 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DB, England.
- Home: 020 7387 7942.
Mobile: 07791029770.
- To email please click
here
-
-
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- EXPLORATIONS INTO HIDDEN LITERARY
LONDON
-
- CALENDAR OF WALKS
- 2007
-
- May 12th ………….. DION
FORTUNE
-
- June 9th …………… NORTH SOHO
999
-
- June 23rd …………. ARTHUR
RIMBAUD
-
- July 14th …………… JAMES
McNEILL WHISTLER
-
- September 16th ……. PATRICK HAMILTON – A
BRIGHTON ADVENTURE
-
- October 21st.……… JOHN
MINTON
-
-
- All walks are free
- After each walk there will be a
collection for voluntary donations to
- The London Adventure
Children’s Fund
-
-
-
- Also
on this page:
-
- FORTHCOMING
WALKS
-
- PREVIOUS
WALKS
-
- THE LONDON ADVENTURE
CHILDREN'S FUND
-
- Alexia Lazou leading the Beardsley
walk.
-
- DION FORTUNE
- Priestess of the Mysteries
- Presented by Christina Oakley
Harrington
- Saturday
12th May 2007, 3pm
- Your
rendezvous with Dion Fortune commences at the entrance to
Bayswater Underground Station. Look for a blonde lady of
a certain age, holding a long black umbrella that signals
Edwardian London, and join her on a tour of the London
haunts of Dion Fortune (1890-1946), one of the most
influential occultists and probably the most preeminent
esoteric novelist of the 20th century.
- Trained
in Western kabbalistic occultism in a lodge of the Golden
Dawn, Dion Fortune went on to found her own order,
Servants of the Inner Light. She wrote novels which
included Egyptian reincarnation, erotic rituals,
Celtic mysticism, derring-do, psychic attacks, and
instruction in the philosophy of Western occultism.
- The walk
will last 2-3 hours, concluding at a local public
house.
-
- Recommended reading:
- Dion
Fortune, The Goat-Foot God (1936);
The Sea Priestess (1938);
Moon Magic (1956)
- Alan
Richardson, The Magical Life of Dion Fortune:
Priestess of the 20th Century (1991)
- Gareth
Knight, Dion Fortune and The Inner
Light (2000)
-
- Christina Oakley Harrington is a
historian of religion and magical movements, and is
published with Oxford University Press. She runs
Treadwell’s Bookshop in Covent Garden (website:
www.treadwells-london.com).
-
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-
- IN ASSOCIATION
WITH THE SOHEMIAN SOCIETY
- NORTH
SOHO 999
- A
True Story of Gangs and Gun-crime in 1940s
London
- Presented by Paul Willetts
- Saturday
9th June 2007, 3pm
- On the
corner of Tottenham Street and Tottenham Court Road, a
few yards north of Goodge Street Underground Station,
you’ll find a man clutching a copy of Fabian of the
Yard. Join him for a walk through the
blitzed, smog-shrouded streets of 1940s Fitzrovia.
- The tour
focuses on the epidemic of gun-crime and teenage
gangsterism that took place during the aftermath of World
War Two. What became known as the post-war crime wave
reached its bloody climax on 29 April 1947 when a 17-year
old armed robber and his two accomplices executed a
passer-by on Charlotte Street. Minutes later, the gunmen
found themselves at the centre of one of the biggest and
most brilliant police investigations of the
- twentieth-century. This extraordinary
story was populated by an incongruous cast, encompassing
the forensic pioneer Sir Bernard Spilsbury, the
photographer Bert Hardy, the hangman Albert Pierrepoint,
the film star Ingrid Bergman and the flamboyant detective
Robert Fabian. It subsequently spawned a film,
The Blue Lamp, starring Dirk Bogarde, and
Britain’s first hit TV cop show, Fabian of Scotland
Yard.
- The walk
will last approximately 1½ hours, concluding in the
upstairs room of the Wheatsheaf public house at 25
Rathbone Place. Signed copies of North Soho 999 will be
on sale there.
-
- Recommended reading:
- Paul
Willetts, North Soho 999 (2007)
- Robert
Fabian, Fabian of the Yard (1950)
- Sally
Fiber, The Fitzroy Tavern (1995)
-
- Paul
Willetts is the author of North Soho
999 and Fear and Loathing in
Fitzrovia, a biography of the Soho dandy Julian
Maclaren-Ross. His writing has also appeared in
The Independent on Sunday, The Times
and other publications.
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- ARTHUR RIMBAUD IN
LONDON
- Presented by Robert Yates
- Saturday
23rd June 2007, 3pm
- I am
an ephemeral and not too discontented citizen of a
metropolis thought to be modern because every known taste
has been avoided in the furnishings and exteriors of the
houses as well as in the layout of the city. Here you
will not be able to make out the remains of any monument
to superstition. Morality and language have been reduced
to their simplest expression, at last!
[from Rimbaud’s prose poem “City”,
probably written in London 1872/3]
- Under
the statue of Richard Cobden, opposite Mornington
Crescent Underground Station, look for the man in black
holding a biography of Arthur Rimbaud, and join him on a
tour of places associated with the French poet,
accompanied by readings from translations of his work.
- Arthur
Rimbaud (1854-1891) was a precocious genius who
revolutionised French poetry in his verse and prose
poems, which were all probably written before he reached
the age of 20. Rimbaud lived in London in 1872-3 at the
height of his tempestuous and often violent relationship
with fellow poet Paul Verlaine. It was a period of
intense poetic creativity for both writers. They rented
rooms in several areas of London during their time here,
including Royal College Street and Howland Street.
- The walk
will last approximately 2 hours, concluding at a local
public house.
-
- Recommended reading:
- Arthur
Rimbaud, Collected Poems (Penguin, 1962)
- Enid
Starkie, Arthur Rimbaud (1961)
- Graham
Robb, Rimbaud (2000)
- Jean-Luc
Steinmetz, Rimbaud: Presence of an
Enigma (2001)
-
- Robert
Yates works as a translator of French and other
languages. He has studied the life and works of Rimbaud
on-and-off for the past 20 years. His translations of
Rimbaud and Baudelaire have appeared in The
Wolf magazine and on the Brindin Press
website. He is a mainstay of the London poetry scene and
a founder member of the Vintage Poison poetry collective,
whose first anthology was published this year.
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-
- JAMES McNEILL
WHISTLER
- A
Dandy in Chelsea
- Presented by Antony Clayton
- Saturday
14th July 2007, 3pm
- Outside
Chelsea Library, in the King’s Road at the junction with
Sydney Street (about 15 minutes walk from either Sloane
Square or South Kensington Underground stations), join
the man bearing a copy of Whistler’s distinctive
butterfly signature for a walk around places with
Whistlerian associations, such as the site of Cremorne
Gardens (inspiration for the notorious “Nocturne in Black
and Gold: the Falling Rocket”), Battersea Reach,
Battersea Bridge and some of his many residences.
- Printmaker, designer, teacher, critic,
polemicist, flamboyant dandy, acerbic wit, ebullient
self-publicist, irascible litigant and a serious artist
of considerable refinement, James McNeill Whistler
(1834-1903) was one of the most controversial figures in
the London art world of the late-Victorian period.
Educated in the Parisian studio of Charles Gleyre and
influenced by Japanese art and design, Whistler spent
many of his most productive years in Chelsea, capturing
crepuscular atmospheric effects on the Thames and
producing some of his most memorable portraits. His
distinctive Nocturnes, Arrangements, Symphonies and
Harmonies verged on abstraction and challenged the
orthodox Victorian belief in the primacy of subject
matter, so much so, that John Ruskin famously accused him
of, “flinging a pot of paint in the public’s face”. Many
writers of the time, such as Baudelaire, Mallarmé,
Verlaine, Swinburne and Oscar Wilde, were fascinated by
his work, although he often fell out with friends and
admirers.
- The walk
will last approximately 2 hours and will finish at an
appropriate alehouse.
-
- Recommended reading:
- J. M.
Whistler, The Gentle Art of Making
Enemies (1892)
- Tom
Pocock, Chelsea Reach (1970)
- Stanley
Weintraub, Whistler: a Biography (1974)
- Robin
Spencer, Whistler: a Retrospective (1989)
-
- Antony
Clayton is the author of the following books, published
by Historical Publications: Subterranean City: Beneath
the Streets of London (2000), London’s Coffee
Houses: A Stimulating Story (2003), Decadent
London (2005), The Folklore of
London (forthcoming, 2008), and Blandland: The
Banalisation of Britain (forthcoming, 2008). He is
contributing editor of The London
Adventure, the forthcoming collection of essays
based on past London Adventure walks.
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-
- PATRICK HAMILTON’S
SINISTER BRIGHTON
- Presented by Marc Glendening
- Sunday
16th September 2007, 3pm
- Please
note that this walk is on a Sunday (not the usual
Saturday)
- Meet in
front of the old West Pier in Brighton, where a
representative of Mr Hamilton will await you: look out
for a tall gentleman wearing a tweed jacket, hat, old
school tie, sharply pressed trousers and Oxford brogues,
and carrying a copy of Picture Post. Follow him to
enter the menacing world of Patrick Hamilton (1904-1962)
and that of the seductive but psychopathic Ralph Ernest
Gorse.
- Thought
to have been based on real-life murderer and fraudster
Neville Heath, the character of Gorse was to feature in
three of Hamilton’s novels, including the Brighton-based
The West Pier, in which we are introduced
to him as a young man seeking to master the dark arts of
personal deception. Like all Hamilton’s books,
the Gorse trilogy offers an incisive and
perversely humorous insight into the British class
structure and culture of the period between the First and
Second World Wars. You will visit venues associated with
The West Pier and Hamilton’s own early
life.
- The walk
will last approximately two hours, concluding at a local
public house. Copies of the recently-published Black
Spring Press edition of The Gorse
Trilogy will be available for sale on the day.
-
- Recommended reading:
- Patrick
Hamilton, The Gorse Trilogy: The West Pier, Mr
Stimpson and Mr Gorse, Unknown Assailant (Black Spring
Press, 2007); Hangover Square (1941)
- Nigel
Jones, Through a Glass Darkly (1992)
- Sean
French, Patrick Hamilton (1993)
-
- [See
following walk for biographical note on Marc
Glendening]
-
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-
- THE JOHN MINTON
EXPERIENCE
- Presented by Marc Glendening
- Sunday
21st October 2007, 3pm
- Please
note that this walk is on a Sunday (not the usual
Saturday)
- Rendezvous outside the Windsor Castle,
114-116 Campden Hill Road (five minutes walk from Notting
Hill Gate Underground Station: take the left-hand stairs
marked “Notting Hill Gate South Side and Kensington
Church Street”). There you will be greeted by a tall man
wearing a flamboyantly coloured scarf. Travel with him
back in time to the louche, alcohol-fuelled and
sex-charged ambience of post-war bohemia. You will visit
artists’ studios and drinking dens associated with
the extrovert but deeply troubled painter, John Minton
(1917-1957).
- In
addition to his prolific and highly acclaimed body of
work, Minton was at the epicentre of a 1940s and ’50s
cultural vortex featuring artists such as the
hell-raising Scotsmen Colquhoun and MacBryde, Keith
Vaughan, Rodrigo and Elinor Moynihan, Michael Ayrton and
Francis Bacon, as well as Dylan Thomas and the ultimate
Sohemian, Henrietta Moreas.
- The
second half of this walk will involve taking a tube from
Kensington High Street to South Kensington, and then a
hearty half-hour walk to Chelsea Embankment. The walk
will conclude at Apollo Place, Chelsea Embankment, where
Minton took his own life in 1957.
- The John
Minton Experience will last approximately 2½ hours.
As a prelude, if you wish to join Marc Glendening for a
drink and a chat before the walk, he will be at the
Windsor Castle from 2pm.
-
- Recommended reading:
- Francis
Spalding, John Minton: Dance Till the Stars Come
Down (2005)
- Francis
Spalding et al, John Minton 1917-1957: A Selective
Retrospective (Royal College of Art catalogue,
1994)
- Daniel
Farson, Soho in the Fifties (1987)
- Virginia
Ironside, Janey and Me: Growing up with My
Mother (2000)
- John
Moynihan, Restless Lives: The Bohemian World of
Rodrigo and Elinor Moynihan (2003)
-
- Marc
Glendening is co-founder and secretary of the Sohemian
Society, which celebrates the cultural heritage of Soho
(www.sohemians.com). He is the
campaign director of the all-party Democracy Movement and
is an active member of the Libertarian Alliance.
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-
- Forthcoming
-
- THE LONDON ADVENTURE
- A volume
of essays on London literary figures by London Adventure
walk leaders
-
- AUBREY
BEARDSLEY by Alexia Lazou
- ALEISTER
CROWLEY by Mark Pilkington
- CHARLES
FORT by John Rimmer
- ARTHUR
MACHEN by Nicolas Granger-Taylor
- EDWARD
HERON-ALLEN by Joan Navarre
- BARON
CORVO by Bryan Welch
- ARTHUR
SYMONS by Antony Clayton
- MICHAEL
ARLEN by Mark Valentine
- SAX
ROHMER by Antony Clayton
- PATRICK
HAMILTON by Marc Glendening
- WILLIAM
S. BURROUGHS by Bill Redwood
-
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-
- Previous London
Adventure walks:
-
- DAVID
JONES
- October
14, 2006
-
- PATRICK
HAMILTON
- September 24, 2006
-
- BARON
CORVO
- September 2, 2006
-
- CHARLES
FORT
- July 8,
2006
-
- WALTER
SICKERT
- May 27,
2006
-
- FLORENCE
FARR
- April
29, 2006
-
- ARTHUR
SYMONS
- April 8,
2006
-
- PATRICK
HAMILTON'S DANGEROUS LONDON
- Sunday
23 October 2005, 3pm
- Please use
this link to read a review of the Patrick Hamilton
Walk
-
- WILLIAM
S. BURROUGHS
- Saturday
10 September 2005, 3pm
- Please use
this link to read a review of the William Burroughs
Walk
-
- BRAM
STOKER
- Saturday
13 August 2005, 6pm
-
- THE
LEGEND AND LITERATURE OF BLEEDING HEART YARD
- Wednesday 13 July 2005, 7.30pm
-
- THE REVD
MONTAGUE SUMMERS: Demonologist
- Saturday
25 June 2005, 3pm
-
- JULIAN
MACLAREN-ROSS
- Saturday
21 May 2005, 3pm
-
- ARTHUR
MACHEN: The Sage of St John's Wood
- Saturday
23 April 2005, 3pm
-
- MICHAEL
ARLEN CAVALIER OF THE STREETS
- Saturday
23rd October 2004
- Please use
this link to read a review of the Michael Arlen
Walk
-
- SAX
ROHMER'S WEST END
- Saturday
2nd October 2004
- Please use
this link to read a review of the Sax Rohmer
Walk
-
- THE
MYSTERIES OF THE HILL: ARTHUR MACHEN AND FRIENDS IN WEST
LONDON
- Saturday
3 July 2004
-
- EDWARD
HERON-ALLEN, F.R.S.
- Saturday
12 June 2004
-
- NATSUME
SOSEKI: THE TWO MOST MISERABLE YEARS OF HIS LIFE
- Saturday
29 May 2004
-
- WOMEN OF
THE GOLDEN DAWN
- Saturday
24 April 2004
-
- ALEISTER
CROWLEY AND THE GOLDEN DAWN
- Saturday
22nd November 2003
- Please use this
link to read a review of the Crowley Walk
-
- M.P.
SHIEL : LONDON PALACES OF THE KING IN EXILE
- Saturday
8th November 2003
- Please use this
link to read a review of the M.P. Shiel
Walk
-
- ERNEST
DOWSON: A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION
- Saturday
2nd August 2003
- Please use this
link to read a review of the Dowson Walk
-
- AUBREY
BEARDSLEY: PIERROT OF PIMLICO AND PICCADILLY
- Sunday
29th June 2003
- Please use this
link to read a review of the Beardsley
Walk
-
- THE
HEART OF DRACULA'S CITY
- Sunday
18th May 2003
- Please use this
link to read a review of the Dracula Walk
-
- ARTHUR
MACHEN IN THE 1890's
- Saturday
5th April 2003
-
- Please use this link
to read a review of the Machen in the 1890's
Walk
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-
-
- At the end of each walk
there will be a collection of voluntary donations
to
- The
London Adventure Children's Fund
- IMPORTANT FUND NEWS!
-
- THE LONDON ADVENTURE
RUSSIAN ORPHANS FUND: A REPORT
-
- THE LONDON
ADVENTURE CHILDREN’S FUND: AN INTRODUCTION
-
- Dear
London Adventurer
- I would
like to draw your attention to the change of name of the
Fund; formerly The London Adventure Russian Orphans Fund,
it is now The London Adventure Children’s Fund. For more
on this, please see below for Drika Makariev’s Fund
Report and my introduction to the Children’s Fund; below
that you will find information on Kids Company, the
charity organisation we will be donating to this year.
- With all
best wishes,
- Nicolas
Granger-Taylor
-
-
- The London
Adventure Russian Orphans Fund
- Report
by Drika Makariev
- April
2007
- Thank
you to everyone who has contributed to The London
Adventure Russian Orphans Fund. In the past year your
donations have raised $1,449! Last month my husband went
to Moscow and has identified an orphanage in Serpuhov, a
small city three hours outside of Moscow that would
greatly benefit from the donation. Friends of ours will
visit the orphanage and decide what to purchase based on
its specific needs. When this process is complete I will
provide an itemization to the Fund detailing the
expenditures of the donation.
- Last
year’s donation of $1,200 was given to an orphanage in
Reutov, a town on the outskirts of Moscow,* and was
contributed toward the restoration of the orphanage. Our
original agreement with the orphanage was that the
donation was to be spent on books, toys, and games for
the children. This past year the orphanage was undergoing
renovations, and when renovation costs exceeded the
expected projections, the orphanage director had to weigh
the benefits of spending the donation on toys and books
against eliminating many of the reconstruction plans.
While not conforming to our expectations, I think her
decision put the donation money to good use. The children
have directly benefited from your contributions and are
immensely pleased with their new arrangements. Before the
renovation the orphanage was rather gloomy with evident
spots and cracks in the ceilings and walls; there was one
sleeping room each for boys and for girls. Now the
orphanage is much brighter and the children sleep in
suites consisting of several bedrooms each. The suites
create more intimate, “family” environments and privacy
for the children. Research shows that children do much
better with this arrangement and institutions are
encouraged to make this change if possible. I’m very glad
that this orphanage was able to update their dilapidated
building.
- As trips
to Russia for my husband and I are becoming less frequent
and predictable, I find that I am not able to be as
active in the distribution of the funds as I would like
and feel that it is best to step down as overseas
representative. In addition, the Russian government is
now requiring that donations from foreign individuals or
organizations be reported to and monitored by the State.
This makes it much more difficult to give money to
Russian orphanages and less likely that orphanage
directors will want to accept donations from foreigners
because of the extensive paperwork and hassle that it
involves.
- I have
truly treasured the opportunity to distribute the funds
to the orphanages and be part of the children’s lives.
This experience has impressed upon me that little acts
can make a great difference in instilling in children the
feeling that they are cared for and valued.
- With
best wishes,
- Drika
Makariev
- Ph.D.
student, University of California, Davis
-
- * Social
Rehabilitation Center "Children's Home", 8 Gagarin St.,
Reutov, Moscow Region
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news
-
- THE LONDON
ADVENTURE CHILDREN’S FUND
- Secretary: Nicolas Granger-Taylor
Treasurer: Juliet Morel
- As Drika
Makariev has stated in her report, the money raised
recently by The London Adventure Russian Orphans Fund
will go towards the purchase of books, games, toys and
art materials for the children of the Serpuhov orphanage
outside Moscow. A further report on the expenditure of
this donation will be delivered in due course. For their
invaluable work with the Fund these past two years, we
would like to take this opportunity to warmly thank Drika
and her husband, Oleg Makariev, and their friends and
family.
- In light
of the restrictive and uncertain factor of the increased
interference of the Russian authorities with regard to
foreign charitable aid as mentioned in Drika’s report,
and after much consideration, we have chosen to
discontinue our donations to Russia for the time being.
The Fund has been renamed “The London Adventure
Children’s Fund”, and we will direct future donations to
organisations which benefit children primarily, but
not necessarily exclusively, in the London area.
- This
year the organisation we have chosen to support is Kids
Company, based in Borough, South London. Below you will
find some basic information on Kids Company, taken from
their publicity handout. Juliet & I recently visited
the Kids Company Urban Academy and were deeply inspired
and moved, not least by the energy and dedication of the
staff and the enthusiastic involvement of the
children themselves. We will be giving one large donation
after the walks season ends in October (Kids Company have
asked for a single donation for the year, which will be
easier to manage & to allocate). The money will be
given as a “restricted” donation: this means it will only
be spent on those areas we specify – the supply of books,
games, toys and art materials.
- We feel
privileged for the opportunity to make a difference in
the lives of these children, and hope that London
Adventure members will support the Children’s Fund with
as much generosity as they did the Russian Orphan’s
Fund.
- With all
best wishes,
- Nicolas
Granger-Taylor
-
- KIDS COMPANY
- Kids Company supports
children with severe behavioural, emotional
and social difficulties resulting from
significant childhood trauma and/or neglect.
Many of them are living in chronic
deprivation due to extreme poverty and little
or no support from the adults in their
family. They often suffer from abuse, mental
health problems, substance misuse and
homelessness.
- Risk factors identified by
Government for vulnerable children and young
people include poverty, involvement or
potential involvement in crime, low
educational attainment and threats to mental
health. On average, Kids Company children
presented with an astounding fourteen risk
factors per child. These children’s typical
experience of adults, whether they are
parents, carers or professionals, is of being
failed, rejected or harmed by them.
- Kids Company reaches these
children through word-of-mouth on the
streets. We aim to restore their trust and
give them an environment where they begin the
healing process through an informal but
carefully designed support system that
includes psychotherapy, education, art and
sports, and hot meals. We also provide
practical support such as accompanying them
to youth courts, finding accommodation,
advocacy with mental health teams or even in
some instances supporting a lone teenage girl
during the birth of her child.
- We are currently supporting
around 661 children at the Arches II, our
drop-in and education centre in South London,
100 children in our post-sixteen educational
institute, the Urban Academy, and a further
10,000 children in 30 schools across London.
- In April 2005, the Treasury
gave us a grant of approximately
£3.4million over three years from “The
Invest To Save Budget”. This provides us with
half our running costs for three years and we
will receive it if we can match it with our
own fundraising from the private
sector.
- Further information can be
found on our website: www.kidsco.org.uk, by
e-mailing us at info@kidsco.org.uk or by
calling us on 0845 644 6838.
-
- Kids Company is a registered
charity no. 1068298 and company no.
3442083.
- Registered office: Sherborne
House, 34 Decima Street, London SE1
4QQ.
|
- Contact:
- Nicolas
Granger-Taylor, 35 Grafton Way, London W1T 5DB
- Tel: 020
7387 7942 Mobile: 07791 029 770
- Email:
ngrangertaylor@aol.com
-
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-
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- For
their assistance and encouragement in the creation of The
London Adventure and the inaugural walk, Nicolas
Granger-Taylor would like to express his gratitude to
Mark Samuels, Roger Dobson, Ray Russell, Mark Valentine,
Jeremy Cantwell, John Ricketts, Jon Preece, Adrian
Eckersley, Sue Phillips, Steven Halliwell, Peter
Granger-Taylor, Hero Granger-Taylor, Jacqueline
Granger-Taylor, the British Museum, the Honourable
Society of Gray's Inn, and Janet Pollock.
- To email
please click here
-
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page updated 6th May 2007
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