Even the most devoted Anglophile will learn something new from these four hundred fun and wide-ranging trivia questions about London's history, monuments, architecture, famous residents, place-names, notable events, and more. A delightful way to explore the city on foot or via armchair, this fun book is a perfect stocking filler, with history ranging from obscure lore to facts and fascinating, often humorous histories.
Here's a sample:
Where is the only cross-eyed statue in London and who does it depict?
a) Next to the Royal Exchange in the City of London; George Peabody, the nineteenth-century American-born philanthropist
b) At the point where Fetter Lane and New Fetter Lane converge; John Wilkes, the eighteenth-century politician
c) Islington Green; Sir Hugh Myddleton, the seventeenth-century entrepreneur
Answer: b) John Wilkes really did have a severe squint, as reproduced in the statue, but despite his looks, he was a legendary and eloquent womanizer who once said that, when meeting an attractive woman, it took him only ten minutes "to talk away his face."
Email to a colleague