Dorothy Margaret Stuart writes of the triumph and tragedy which have shaped London through the ages with all the life and grace and humor the events deserve. Emphasizing the daily life of the Londoners themselves, she traces the cultural and historical forces which have played upon them—as citizens of Londinium under the Roman occupation and the dark period of barbaric invasion until the dawn of Christianity; as merchants watching the growth of economic power, civic freedom and dynastic tradition under the Norman kings; as rebels against misrule, and the resulting Magna Carta; as Elizabethans emerging from a medieval city under their adored Tudor queen; as Puritan reformers; as leaders of the Industrial Revolution; as confident Victorians; and survivors under the threat and destruction of two World Wars.  Here are the humble and the proud, the tragic and the gay of London's royalty and citizenry, flavored by selections from the writings of Tacitus, Samuel Pepys, Wordsworth and contemporary commentators who have given lucid testimony to the grim and the glorious days in which they wrote.

Caught up in London's stubborn, evolutionary struggle for full self-government, the reader will gain an insight into the amazing and lasting influence this slow, yet decisive, pattern of a city's development has had on the shaping of Europe and the Western World.

The book is richly illustrated by Sheila Maguire, who has drawn from original sources in her accurate reproduction of old manuscripts, tapestries, prints and portraits.

From the dust jacket