In letters sold by Sotheby's in 2008, science-fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke wrote:

Talking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival last week about the richly dialectical relationship between literature and landscapes - a panel born from the British Library's London Festival 2012 exhibition, 'Writing Britain' -, it was clear that (even in landlocked Cheltenham) there is an especial fascination with...

Two weeks ago, strange coded messages hummed along the wires between the Inigo Rooms, King's College London's new exhibition space in Somerset House, and the British Library in St Pancras.

RH band confirmation.. nanometre wavelengths... lux levels. Readings eagerly exchanged on a twice-daily basis...not forgetting the dispatch of 12mm...

Fog everywhere. Fog up the river, where it flows among green aits and meadows; fog down the river, where it rolls defiled among the tiers of shipping and the waterside pollutions of a great (and dirty) city
Charles Dickens, Bleak House

Summer finally shows up, London blazes under cloudless...

In advance of the Olympic torch being trundled round the streets of Haringey (in North London, where I live), the road engineers have been busy. For the past few weeks, all traffic has been diverted, and a shiny new road surface laid down on the torch route up and over...