Book description
City of the Mind
is the second novel by Booker Prize winning author Penelope Lively.
'This is the city in which everything is simultaneous. There is
no yesterday, nor tomorrow, merely weather, and decay, and construction.'
In London's changing heartland, architect Matthew Halland is aware
of how the past and the present blend. It stirs memories of his
boyhood, the early years of his daughter Jane and the failed marriage
that he has almost put behind him. Here too is the London of
prehistory, of Georgian elegance, of the Blitz. But Matthew is
occupied with constructing a new future for London in Docklands, and
with it he begins to forge new beginnings of his own.
'A glorious novel' Observer
'The descriptions of the London Blitz are achingly real' Sunday Telegraph
Penelope Lively is the author of many prize-winning novels and
short-story collections for both adults and children. She has twice
been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: once in 1977 for her first
novel, The Road to Lichfield, and again in 1984 for
According to Mark. She later won the 1987 Booker Prize for
her highly acclaimed novel Moon Tiger. Her other books include
Going Back; Judgement Day; Next to Nature, Art;
Perfect Happiness; Passing On; City of the
Mind; Cleopatra's Sister; Heat Wave; Beyond the
Blue Mountains, a collection of short stories; Oleander,
Jacaranda, a memoir of her childhood days in Egypt;
Spiderweb; her autobiographical work, A House Unlocked;
The Photograph; Making It Up; Consequences;
Family Album, which was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Novel
Award, and How It All Began. She is a popular writer for
children and has won both the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Award.
She was appointed CBE in the 2001 New Year's Honours List, and DBE in
2012. Penelope Lively lives in London.
Penelope Lively is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and a
member of PEN and the Society of Authors. She was married to the late
Professor Jack Lively, has a daughter, a son, three granddaughters and
three grandsons, and lives in London. She has written many prize-winning
novels and collections of short stories for both adults and children.
Moon Tiger
won the 1987 Booker Prize. Penelope Lively's most recent book,
Making
It Up,
is available now in Penguin paperback.
