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City of Encounters: A London Divertissement, 1932

Posted: October 24th, 2026 | No Comments »

The front cover of the 1932 first edition book City of Encounters: A London Divertissement (Constable & Co.) by Thomas Burke, featuring a jacket design by the artist Gladys Hines.

From the New York Times review in 1932 – ‘a deeply atmospheric, episodic volume that blends personal memoir with sociological character sketches. Rather than serving as a standard layout of a city or a catalog of streets and historic landmarks, Thomas Burke treats London as a living, breathing landscape of distinct human personalities.’



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