[A] splendid oral history of the city... On occasions Londoners attains a level of eloquence as beautiful and blue as anything to be found in the works of Jean Rhys or Samuel Selvon ... A remarkable volume
Guardian
Craig Taylor tunes in to the multi-tongued, self-justifying noise of the streets. And he leaves us with a substantial account, not just of our imaginary riverside capital, but, more vividly, of himself: as inquirer, investigator, part of a long and valuable lineage
- Iain Sinclair, Observer
I am crazy about Craig Taylor's Londoners ... I wanted it to go on and on, and I can't imagine any lucky recipient not enjoying it
- Diana Athill,
Its brilliance lies not in the way Taylor frames the concept but in the way he lets people talk without obvious motive or direction. Five stars.
Time Out
Londoners must be 2011's most ambitious and creative book about London ... This is a book to deepen your relationship with London and make you fall in - or out - of love with it all over again ... I can't tell you how much I enjoyed it
Evening Standard
An epic portrait in eighty voices that shows the city to be just as ... well ... Dickensian as it has ever been
- David Nicholls,
Taylor set out to understand London by talking to people about their lives there. It's not an original idea but Taylor has been astonishingly enterprising in the way he has gone about it ... it is to his credit that he has the inspired people he has met to speak so thoroughly about the city and what it means to them ... Often inspiring, occasionally infuriating, always interesting, Craig Taylor has given us something of a Mayhew's London for our own times
- Jerry White, Times Literary Supplement
Londoners will tell you more about the multiform life of the capital than a lifetime reading the Evening Standard
- Joe Moran, Guardian.co.uk
Taylor's superb book does full justice to London and its people, and should be enjoyed by everyone, whether they love the place or regret ever having set foot there
- Alexander Larman, Observer
Memorable, funny and occasionally melancholy... a rich, satisfying tapestry of metropolitan life
- Nick Rennison, Sunday Times
A cacophonous testimony to the multiple lives of the capital... all life is here in all its dirty, exuberant glory
- Claire Allfree, Metro
A cracking read
London Life blog
What I'm really enjoying about the book is the richness of language used by its huge variety of characters
City Read London blog
Fascinating
- William Leith, Evening Standard
Stimulating
- Alastair Mabbott, Herald
Ranging from the shocking to the poignant, 80 London voices produce a vivid collage of this impossible city
- Christopher Hirst, Independent
Captures the resilient but inclusive attitude that characterises its residents
LiteraryLondon.org