Night Haunts: A Journey Through the London Night
Traditional depictions of London at night have imagined a lawless orgy of depravity and pestilence. But is Britain’s capital after dark now as bland and unthreatening as an evening in any new provincial town? Sukhdev Sandhu journeys across the city to find out whether the London night really has been rendered insipid by street lighting and CCTV. Night Haunts seeks to reclaim the mystery and romance of the city—to revitalize the great myth of London for a new century.
Paperback, 144 pages
ISBN: 9781844676552
November 2010
$14.95 / £7.99
- Purchase
Other Editions
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Hardback, 144 pages
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ISBN: 9781844671625
September 2007
$18.95 / £10.99
Reviews
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I would add Sandhu’s work to the likes of Lights Out for the Territory as offering some of the greatest insights we have into contemporary London.
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A book that restores some mystery and romance to the London night.
Blog
Verso's guide to political walking
Inspired by Patrick Keiller's The Robinson Institute, currently on show at the Tate Britain, we present Verso's guide to political walking. We also draw influence from Will Self's Guardian article in which he pronounces that "walking is political" and suggests that the "contemporary flâneur" can be one "who seeks equality of access, freedom of movement and the dissolution of corporate and state control."
1. Wanderlust - Rebecca Solnit
The first general history of walking, Rebecca Solnit's book finds a profound relationship between walking and thinking, walking and culture, and argues for the necessity of preserving the time and space in which to walk in an ever more automobile-dependent and accelerated world.
2. Savage Messiah - Laura Oldfield Ford
Savage Messiah collects Laura Oldfield Ford's black and white, cut 'n' paste, punk fanzines that document her drift through London's margins. Illustrated with haunting line drawings of forgotten people and places, Oldfield Ford records the beauty and anger at the city's edges.
Sukhdev Sandhu's Night Haunts in the Guardian
The paperback edition of Sukhdev Sandhu's Night Haunts continues to garner great reviews, the latest from the Guardian:
In a vivid series of vignettes, Sandhu traverses the capital, inspired by HV Morton's 1926 The Nights of London. But where Morton saw a trove of treasure, Sandhu hears voices crying in the dark: "Prayer is the true language of the night".
Visit the Guardian to read the full review.
“Orwellian”—Night Haunts reviewed in the Independent
Sukhdev Sandhu's Night Haunts garners yet more praise, this time in the Independent.
Sandhu's model for nocturnal rambles was The Nights of London, a 1926 volume from HV Morton, “a beat—not Beat—journo”. The result is a luminous series of sketches in Orwellian style, from cabbies and sewer flushers ("fat is the bane of their lives") to exorcists and Thames bargers ("Nobody knows we're here. Nobody"). This book is an atmospheric and witty companion, especially for those who, like Sandhu, spend the dark hours awake.
Visit the Independent to read the review in full.
Discussions
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Night Writers
Sukhdev Sandhu's revelatory forays through the London night give rich insights into the present-day reality of this accelerated, deregulated city. On his travels, Sukhdev took his battered copy of the book that inspired him: H. V. Morton's bestselling 1920s metrologue, The Nights of London. What other writing — about London or any other metropolis — best illuminates the urban night?