Nairn's London

Rating:
Summary: Don't bother--hunt for the 1988 Gasson revision
Review: Lacking "no-stars," under duress I am forced to rate this book one star.

Ian Nairn published the original in 1966. In 1988, Peter Gasson produced a major revision and updating of the original which I bought several years ago at a remainder store.

Now, in 2002, I am about to revisit London. A friend tells me that Roger Ebert, my up until now favorite film critic has revised Nairns. So I buy a copy.

Bad move.

In it is the text from the 1966 original edition, which according to Gasson, in 1988, was then somewhat out of date.

The 107 essential photographs from the original (and from Gasson's revision) "are not reproduced here."

Plus, ". . .Gasson's updatings of Nairn's 'irreplaceable and intensely personal text [presented by Gasson as footnotes]' are, in their turn, sadly and inevitably out of date as well. . . ."

From Ebert's introduction I surmise that neither he nor the publisher had the guts, expertise, insight, sensitivity, energy, or courage to do a creditable update. So they copped out and merely reprinted the original 1966 Nairn's with Ebert's comments pasted in the front.

In my opinion, this book is a waste of your money.

In my opinion, better you should hunt up a copy of Gasson's 1988 revision and spend an afternoon plotting the locations on a good London map and checking out the details in the 2002 Time Out London guide.

I am returning the Ebert/Nairn guide to Amazon next week.

Jerry Yares ([e-mail])

Rating:
Summary: Nairn is a treasure
Review: The friend who told the previous reviewer I had "revised" Nairn was wrong, and his bad information should not be held against the book. Nowhere on the book or anywhere else is this described as an update or revision.

The book was re-issued as a labor of love. It is a homage to the extraordinary vision and writing of Ian Nairn. It is intended to be read by lovers and students of London, as a series of brilliant essays on the best and worst things in the city. If he wanted a guide book, that is not what it is. I recommend the Access London guide. He got bad advice from a friend, bought a book he did not carefully check out, and now is holding it against Nairn's work. That is not fair. I hope he does not prevent others from discovering this wonderful writer and passionate architectural critic.