East End Literature - Non-Fiction

Non-Fiction

The literary genre of East End urban exploration began with The People of the Abyss by Jack London detailing his grim experiences there in 1903. This inspired George Orwell to repeat the experiment in the same area in the 1930s and write about it in Down and Out in Paris and London. A more contemporary urban explorer is Tarquin Hall who recently ventured into Brick Lane and described his experiences in Salaam Brick Lane (2005) . Meanwhile the mystery of Rodinsky's Room at 19 Princelet Street in Spitalfields was explored by Rachel Lichtenstein and Iain Sinclair in a book of the same name, published in 1999.

Memoirs of the East End include Limehouse Days (1991) by Daniel Farson, Silvertown (2002) by Melanie McGrath and Bernard Kops' East End (2006).

'Where there's a Will, there's a way' (2012) is a biographical, fact based account written in novel format of the remarkable life story of Labour MP, social reformer and East End hero, Will Crooks (The Will Crooks Estate in Poplar is named after him).