Back to the Local (Paperback)

'Wonderful... a detailed study of life in London pubs... Sketching the people who frequented his favourite pubs in Camden and the West End on anything that came to hand - backs of cigarette packets, drinks mats, napkins - [Edward Ardizzone] and his drinking friend Maurice Gorham, art editor at the Radio Times, had a bar-side view of a British cultural institution.' Dan Carrier, Islington Tribune In 1939 Gorham and Ardizzone published The Local, a work that suffered a shorter life even than was usual during wartime when its plates and all remaining stock were destroyed in the Blitz. But after the war was over the authors put together a new edition with a revised text and illustrations, Back to the Local (1949). The results are a delightful nostalgic ramble - a pub crawl, if you like - around the hostelries of London during a now-bygone age.