Londoners

So much has been written about London, from Dickens to Ackroyd to Monica Ali to Patrick Hamilton and on and on and more and more. Craig Taylor, the brilliantly funny author of A Million Tiny Plays About Britain has taken on the task of the definitive state of the nation (city). He has interviewed people from all walks of life, from economic migrants to middle-class poshos to refugees to tourists to artists, and everyone you can think of, in order to write Londoners, one of the most authentic books about London.

In a series of essays and interviews from the point-of-view of London's diverse communities, we get to the nub of the city: what makes it great (arts, culture, life, vice, everything); what makes it grate (transport, tourists, rudeness); what makes it vain (the 'scenes', the middle-class postcode wars) and what essentially makes it the best city on earth.

Maybe it was reading the book not long after leaving it for the West Country, having grown up there. But the book struck a nostalgic and powerful chord with me. I laughed. I cried. I felt terribly sad. I felt terribly smug. Simply put - this is the book for my London - the London I grew up in, the London I became an artist and a person in. Accurately portrayed and brilliantly put-together.