Ben Judah: This is London

In This Is London, Ben Judah turns his keen reporter’s eye on home, immersing himself in the hidden world of the city’s immigrants – from the richest to the poorest – to discover the complex and varied individuals who are making London what it is today. He’s had dinner with oligarchs and meetings with foreign royalty, spent nights streetwalking and sleeping rough; he’s heard stories of heart-breaking failure, but also witnessed extraordinary acts of compassion, hope and the triumph of love.

This is London explodes fossilized myths and offers a fresh, exciting portrait of what it’s like to live, work, fall in love, raise children, grow old and die in London now. Simultaneously intimate and epic, here is a compulsive and deeply sympathetic book on this dizzying world city from one of our brightest new writers.

Ben Judah is an acclaimed foreign correspondent, but here he turns his reporter’s gaze on home, immersing himself in the hidden world of London’s immigrants to reveal the city in the eyes of its beggars, bankers, coppers, gangsters, carers and witch-doctors. From the backrooms of its mosques, Tube tunnels and nightclubs to the frontlines of its streets, Judah has supped with oligarchs and spent nights sleeping rough, worked on building sites and talked business with prostitutes; he’s heard stories of heartbreaking failure, but also witnessed extraordinary acts of compassion.

Ben will be in conversation with James Bloodworth. James is a journalist and the former editor of the political blog Left Foot Forward. He writes a regular column for the International Business Times and has written for the Daily Beast, Politico and the Wall Street Journal. He is currently writing a book for Atlantic about living on the breadline in Tory Britain.