Reading London's Suburbs, 2015 From Charles Dickens to Zadie Smith

A study of London suburban-set writing, exploring the links between place and fiction. This book charts a picture of evolving themes and concerns around the legibility and meaning of habitat and home for the individual, and the serious challenges that suburbia sets for literature.

Acknowledgements List of abbreviations Introduction: 'Where is Clapham? Does Clapham even exist?': Suburban Invisibility 1. "Houseless–Homeless–Hopeless!": Suburbs, Slums and Ghosts 1830 – 1870 2. 'A World of Mud and Fog': The High Victorian and Edwardian Suburb, 1880 – 1914 3. 'The Third England': Suburban Fiction and Modernity, 1918 – 1939 4. 'Your Environment Makes as Little Sense as your Life': Post-War Suburbia 1945-1980 5. 'I Tried to Work Out Where I Was': Contemporary Suburbia Conclusion: 'All Stories are Spatial Stories' Notes Bibliography