LRB Diary for 2025: London A to Z (and back again)

‘When I cross the river, the sword that divides me from pleasure and money, I go north. That is, I take the Northern line “up west”, as we say: that is, to the West End. My London consists of all the stations on the Northern line, but don’t think I scare easily.’ – Angela Carter

The clue is in the name: the London Review of Books has always been based in Bloomsbury, and although the paper’s outlook remains international, after 45 years we’ve come to know the city pretty well. Our diary for 2025 takes an alphabetical tour through 52 subjects from our neighbourhood and beyond, from Keats to the Krays, Woolf to Windrush, the YBAs to the GLC, by writers including Peter Campbell, Jenny Diski, Paul Foot, Andrew O’Hagan, Rosemary Hill, John Lanchester, Hilary Mantel, Mendez, Ian Penman, Katherine Rundell, Sukhdev Sandhu and Iain Sinclair.