London - The Novel

Years ago I worked with an amazing history teacher - Winifred Lambie. One of her secrets for bringing history to life was to encourage her students to read historical novels. At the time, I thought her idea was brilliant: Students enjoyed her history courses and talked about British monarchs with the familiarity of someone living in their era.

(Why had my history teachers not done the same?!)


















I thought about Winifred - and her methods - recently when I began to read the book, London The Novel (by Edward Rutherfurd), an account of the history of London, England, told from the point of view of fictional characters in the same family tree. Each of the 21 chapters in this 1120-page book is really a separate short story that depicts a different historical period in the life of the city.

The book is so fascinating! And I have learned so much - catching a sense of the richness of using historical fiction as a teaching tool. I knew, for example, that Britain is a multi-cultural nation now, but I didn't realize that London's multi-cultural roots go back 2000 years and more, thanks to sailors and traders who visited this important trading center on the Thames River, and often stayed to establish businesses there.

Nor did I aware that the famous French king, William the Conqueror, who became ruler of England in 1066 was really the son of a Danish king who had conquered Normandy in France a generation before. I referred to William's conquest a lot when teaching English to immigrants: Students often wondered why so many English words had French origins (beef from boeuf, poultry from poulet - and so on).

For anyone who finds history easier to absorb when told as a story, or anyone looking for an interesting book to read - I can't recommend this historical novel highly enough!

I have never been a reader of history - but this book has caught my imagination!