Norman Collins (an author I’ve never encountered before),weaves together these narratives magnificently well, creating believable characters – with both flaws and virtues – and having them deal with life in a way which seems so real, you can barely detect the author’s hand. Not all the plots work (Dr Otto Hapfel, for example, really goes nowhere), but reading this feels like an excellent, empathetic slice of living history. I was able to take some time from the daily hours of studying to read this one. Great decision. It's terrible how much time I can lose from reading just because of uni. Hopefully I'll be able to read the sequel soon enough, because I can't wait to read more about this characters. All of this, and everything else about Alex, points to a fundamental misunderstanding of Jacquelyn Middleton's as to why people read these types of books. Again, the reason my copy of Bridget Jones is basically falling apart after countless rereads is because Bridget offers hope of happiness amidst the dreariness of real life - not because she's a perfect woman unfairly victimized by external events. Alex Sinclair is not a real woman, and her happiness comes after such non-events as "lived in a small room," "saw a hot girl near her love interest," and "was the victim of literally the world's laziest plagiarism." Every single one of her problems are external. Left to her own devices, she easily earns the adoration of everyone who meets her, becomes unbelievably proficient at two separate, but disparate jobs within weeks, and manages in less than a year to become teacher’s pet to her fabulously famous playwriting idol. I loved how this book does not focus much on the romance, as it was my first new adult book, my main concern was getting a cheesy lovestory and nothing else, but this was not the case. It had so many important topics which came before the love story - for example friendship. Alex is a person who has been disappointed a lot by other people, which leads to her thinking that she has to sort out all od her shit on her own. How she finds her best friends and realizes that she is not alone and can actually rely on ther people was really touching.

Sometimes the people dearest to you aren't the ones you see everyday. Sometimes your besties are at the end of an Internet connection, smiling in solidarity over a new film trailer or geeky t-shirt design."Secondary characters are always hard to do; you either get too little or too much of them, but I think Middleton has nailed it here. Freddie, Lucy, Mark, Tom and even Olivia were fully rounded characters that could easily have novels of their own (which I'm still hoping for!) While I'm not generally a fan of random chapters in other characters' POVs, the one chapter from Olivia was actually really helpful in understanding her motivations, which I think was necessary for her character. LONDON BELONGS TO ME is the story of a young aspiring playwright named Alex who moves to London to pursue a career in writing. (She’s also very glad to be getting away from her bitter mother and her cheating ex, but mostly she’s excited to start a new life in her favorite place.) Her dream of living in the U.K. is finally happening. However, her big move doesn’t start easy; her luggages is lost upon arrival, her roommate is the spawn of Satan, and she’s been exiled to live in a “room” that is essentially a closet. Still, she pushes through and tries to make the best of it. But everyone has a breaking point and in LONDON BELONGS TO ME, Alex discovers her. The other incredible thing about this is the setting on the eve of war. It was published in 1945 and the sense of ominous build up, stressed waiting, then the increasing terror of May 1940, Dunkirk, and the Blitz are brilliantly atmospheric, but also extremely realistic in the different ways people deal with the stress--panic, denial, jokes, living from news bulletin to news bulletin, rising to the occasion or looking to exploit it.

If that line didn't hook me, nothing could have. I felt such a connection to the main character, Alex, because our personalities seem eerily similar. Is Jacquelyn Middleton the pen name of one of my friends? ;) It's like she knows me. PATRICIA ROC QUITS PICTURE". The News. Vol.49, no.7, 595. Adelaide. 6 December 1947. p.1 . Retrieved 30 August 2017– via National Library of Australia. Alex is a girl looking to escape her rapidly deteriorating life in Florida after the devastation of being cheated on by her longtime boyfriend. As a recent college graduate, she's determined to make her name for herself in London's theater sphere as a playwrite. However, when she crosses the pond, things don't quite go according to plan. Alex finds herself questioning her decision to run away from Florida after her friend and roommate's conniving girlfriend makes her feel unwelcome in the city she loves. She didn't expect to find herself lonely in London upon arrival. Of all the world’s great cities, London seems to lend itself best to being portrayed as poky and provincial. Not for Paris, sad tales of women struggling to get together enough money to feed the electric meter; not for New York, stories of lonely night-watchmen who are just delighted to have one ring of a stove and some canned food. London is a sprawling city which can easily be made dingy and small (particularly the London of the pre-war years), and this is what Norman Collins’ evocative novel does. ‘London Belongs to Me’ is in many ways an epic tale following many characters over a number of years, but with such a concentration on the little details in life, it still manages to feel triumphantly undemonstrative and British.If you enjoyed London Belongs to Me, you might like Sam Selvon's The Lonely Londoners, also available in Penguin Modern Classics. I left this novel feeling like I had lived with all these people and been a part of their lives. This is a novel that captures London and its working class and makes them come alive. The film concerns the residents of a large terraced house in London between Christmas 1938 and September 1939. Among them are the landlady, Mrs Vizzard (played by Joyce Carey), who is a widow and a believer in spiritualism; Mr and Mrs Josser ( Wylie Watson and Fay Compton), and their teenage daughter Doris ( Susan Shaw); the eccentric spiritualist medium Mr Squales (Sim); the colourful Connie Coke ( Ivy St. Helier), the young motor mechanic Percy Boon (Attenborough) and his mother ( Gladys Henson).