A big list of books set in London: classic and modern novels, history, memoirs, the best London guidebooks, kids' books and cookbooks.
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This is a reading list, not a ranking and not a shop. 71 books are below, each with a first-publication year we could verify and a note on who it suits. A few leave London for part of the story. The note says so when that is true. None of the links is a price, a rating, or a promise that a particular edition is in stock.
Five books to start with
If you read one classic, make it Oliver Twist. If you want a modern novel, make it White Teeth. For the history of the city in one volume, make it Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography. For a trip of four days or more, take Rick Steves London. With a child, start with A Bear Called Paddington. The same books are written up again in the sections below.
- Oliver Twist (1838), Charles Dickens. See it on Amazon
- White Teeth (2000), Zadie Smith. See it on Amazon
- London: The Biography (2000), Peter Ackroyd. See it on Amazon
- Rick Steves London (2026), Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw. See it on Amazon
- A Bear Called Paddington (1960), Michael Bond. See it on Amazon
Classic London novels
These are the older novels and stories. The year is the first publication we could verify, which is often earlier than the paperback you will buy.
Oliver Twist (1838), Charles Dickens. Dickens published it as a serial from 1837 to 1839 and as a three-volume book in 1838. An orphan leaves the workhouse for London and falls in with Fagin. Start here for a first classic. See it on Amazon
Bleak House (1853), Charles Dickens. Penguin records the first publication as monthly parts in 1852-3. The Court of Chancery pulls a scattered cast through the London of the case of Jarndyce and Jarndyce. The link is a Bantam paperback of the novel. See it on Amazon
Great Expectations (1861), Charles Dickens. Serialized from December 1860 to August 1861, then issued in three volumes in October 1861. Pip grows up between the Kent marshes and London. It is not a London-only novel. See it on Amazon
Little Dorrit (1857), Charles Dickens. Published in 1857. William Dorrit is a debtor in the Marshalsea, and the book is Dickens on money, prison, and the city around them. See it on Amazon
A Christmas Carol (1843), Charles Dickens. The 1843 Christmas story of Scrooge, the Cratchits, and a London counting-house. Short enough to read in an evening before a Christmas walk. See it on Amazon
Mrs. Dalloway (1925), Virginia Woolf. One day in 1920s London, as Clarissa Dalloway prepares a party. Open Library dates the novel to 1925. Read it if you want the city as a mind walking through it. See it on Amazon
A Study in Scarlet (1887), Arthur Conan Doyle. The 1887 novel that introduces Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. Read it before the short stories if you want the meeting, not only the cases. See it on Amazon
The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (1892), Arthur Conan Doyle. Twelve stories, first published as a book on 14 October 1892, from the Strand run of 1891-92. The best single volume if you want Holmes in short visits. See it on Amazon
The Sign of the Four (1890), Arthur Conan Doyle. The second Holmes novel, 1890. A London case that leaves the sitting room at Baker Street. Open Library search years that say 1889 do not match the book. See it on Amazon
The Secret Agent (1907), Joseph Conrad. First published in 1907 and set in London in 1886. Mr. Verloc is a spy, and the novel stays with him and the city around him. The link is a Wordsworth Classics paperback. See it on Amazon
The Lonely Londoners (1956), Samuel Selvon. Open Library dates it to 1956. Short scenes from the lives of Caribbean migrants in London. The linked Longman paperback is the novel, at 141 pages, not a plot summary. See it on Amazon
The Picture of Dorian Gray (1890), Oscar Wilde. A shorter version ran in Lippincott's in July 1890. The novel-length book followed in April 1891. A London story of a portrait, a young man, and a city he treats as a stage. See it on Amazon
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1886), Robert Louis Stevenson. Penguin describes it as a shilling shocker of 1886. A lawyer in Victorian London and a will with a strange clause. The link is a short Tor Classics paperback of the novella, not a study guide. See it on Amazon
A Journal of the Plague Year (1722), Daniel Defoe. Published in 1722. A fictional narrator walks the London of the 1665 plague. Penguin Classics is the edition to look for. It is a novel in the shape of a journal, not Pepys. See it on Amazon
Nineteen Eighty-Four (1949), George Orwell. Published by Secker and Warburg on 8 June 1949. A novel of surveillance and a regimented society, set in a future London. Read it for the city under another name, not for a walking route. See it on Amazon
Modern novels set in London
Twentieth and twenty-first century fiction. Some of these are London for a few chapters and somewhere else for the rest. Read the note before you treat the book as a map.
Literary fiction
White Teeth (2000), Zadie Smith. Smith's first novel, three families across three generations. The one to pick if you want a big modern London novel rather than a single street. The link is a 2000 Penguin paperback. See it on Amazon
NW (2012), Zadie Smith. Four Londoners try to leave the Caldwell estate where they grew up. A 2012 novel of one corner of the city. The link is a Penguin paperback. See it on Amazon
Brick Lane (2003), Monica Ali. Published in 2003. Nazneen is married and moved to London, and the novel stays with what she can decide for herself. The link is a Scribner paperback. See it on Amazon
Girl, Woman, Other (2019), Bernardine Evaristo. Twelve characters, mostly Black British women, across the country and through the years. Many of the lives pass through London. It is not a London-only novel. The link is a Grove paperback. See it on Amazon
Saturday (2005), Ian McEwan. One day in February 2003 with neurosurgeon Henry Perowne. The author's site lists the first edition as London: Jonathan Cape, 2005. Open Library's "2004" date on the work is the wrong field. See it on Amazon
Atonement (2001), Ian McEwan. A 2001 novel in three periods: 1935 England, the Second World War in England and France, and later. Part of it is wartime London, and a large part is not. The link is a Vintage paperback. See it on Amazon
Fingersmith (2002), Sarah Waters. Published in 2002. Sue Trinder grows up in a baby-farmer's house in a London slum, among pickpockets. The link is a Little, Brown paperback of the novel. See it on Amazon
The Buddha of Suburbia (1990), Hanif Kureishi. Karim lives in a south London suburb and wants the city. His father is the "buddha" of the title. Open Library dates the novel to 1990. The link is a Faber paperback. See it on Amazon
Wolf Hall (2009), Hilary Mantel. Published by Fourth Estate in 2009. Thomas Cromwell at the court of Henry VIII, through the death of Thomas More. Much of that court is in London, and the book is named for a house in Wiltshire. See it on Amazon
Small Island (2004), Andrea Levy. Four narrators in 1948 England. Gilbert, a Jamaican airman, lodges in Queenie's house. Open Library dates the novel to 2004. A London lodging-house story that is also a Britain story. See it on Amazon
Tipping the Velvet (1998), Sarah Waters. Published in 1998. Nan King follows a music-hall star from Canterbury to Leicester Square. A Victorian London romance. The link is a Little, Brown paperback. See it on Amazon
The Line of Beauty (2004), Alan Hollinghurst. Summer 1983. Nick Guest has a room in a Notting Hill house owned by a Conservative MP. Open Library dates the novel to 2004. The link is a Picador Classic paperback. See it on Amazon
Capital (2012), John Lanchester. Residents of a fictional Pepys Road in London get anonymous postcards during the 2008 crash. A street-level novel of that year. The link is a Norton hardcover. See it on Amazon
The Paying Guests (2014), Sarah Waters. It is 1922 in a Camberwell villa. A widow and her daughter take lodgers. The link is a Virago paperback of the novel. See it on Amazon
Romance and comedy
Bridget Jones's Diary (1996), Helen Fielding. A 1996 novel in diary form. Bridget is a single woman in her thirties, working in London and writing the year down. The link is a Picador paperback. See it on Amazon
About a Boy (1998), Nick Hornby. Will is 36 and child-free. Marcus is 12. Open Library dates the novel to 1998 and files it as London fiction. A comedy about two people who are bad at the age they are. See it on Amazon
High Fidelity (1995), Nick Hornby. Hornby's novel of a man who owns a small record shop and is worse at relationships than at music. Open Library dates it to 1995 and files it under English fiction. The link is a Riverhead paperback. See it on Amazon
The Duke and I (2000), Julia Quinn. The first Bridgerton novel, a Regency romance, dated 2000 by Open Library. Daphne Bridgerton and a duke stage an attachment for society. Read it for the season, not for a street atlas. See it on Amazon
Mystery and fantasy
Neverwhere (1996), Neil Gaiman. Richard Mayhew helps a girl bleeding on a London sidewalk and ends up in London Below. Open Library dates the novel to 1996. The link is an Avon paperback. Fantasy, not a Tube map. See it on Amazon
Rivers of London (2011), Ben Aaronovitch. Aaronovitch's fantasy of London, magic, and the Metropolitan Police. Open Library dates it to 2011. The link is the Gollancz paperback of that year. See it on Amazon
Hawksmoor (1985), Peter Ackroyd. A Scotland Yard detective named Nicholas Hawksmoor works a string of murders, in parallel with an eighteenth-century architect named Nicholas Dyer. The Harper and Row edition is 1985. Ignore Open Library search hits that say 1975. See it on Amazon
The Cuckoo's Calling (2013), Robert Galbraith. Cormoran Strike, a private investigator, is hired after a model dies. Published under the name Robert Galbraith. Open Library lists J. K. Rowling on the work. The link is a Sphere paperback. See it on Amazon
At Bertram's Hotel (1965), Agatha Christie. Miss Marple stays in an old-fashioned London hotel that is not as respectable as it looks. Open Library dates the novel to 1965. A London hotel mystery, not a guidebook to Mayfair. See it on Amazon
London history
Histories and one oral history. Read The Five before a Jack the Ripper tour, and read the sewer and plague books if you want the city under the streets rather than the palaces.
London: The Biography (2000), Peter Ackroyd. Ackroyd's long biography of the city. Open Library dates it to 2000. The link is a search: a thick Penguin paperback we checked is titled only London, so we did not pin a product page to it. See it on Amazon
The Five (2019), Hallie Rubenhold. The lives of Polly Nichols, Annie Chapman, Elizabeth Stride, Catherine Eddowes, and Mary Jane Kelly, the five women killed in 1888. Read it before a Jack the Ripper walk. The link is the Houghton Mifflin edition subtitled The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper. See it on Amazon
The Ghost Map (2006), Steven Johnson. A history of a cholera outbreak in Victorian London and of Dr. John Snow's work on how it spread. Open Library dates the book to 2006. The link is a Riverhead paperback. See it on Amazon
The Great Stink of London (1999), Stephen Halliday. Sir Joseph Bazalgette and the sewers that cleaned the Victorian capital. Open Library dates it to 1999. The link is the Sutton edition with that subtitle. See it on Amazon
London Under (2011), Peter Ackroyd. A short book on what is under the streets: springs, Roman remains, Victorian sewers, and Tube stations. Open Library dates it to 2011. The link is the Chatto and Windus edition. See it on Amazon
London Orbital (2002), Iain Sinclair. A walk around the M25. The edge of London, not the landmarks. The linked Granta hardcover is subtitled A Walk Around the M25 and dated October 2002. See it on Amazon
Londinium (1998), John Morris. Roman London. Open Library dates the work to 1998. The link is the 2005 Phoenix edition subtitled London in the Roman Empire. We did not verify an earlier 1982 date, so it is not used here. See it on Amazon
The Diary of Samuel Pepys (1856), Samuel Pepys. The diary itself was kept in the reigns of Charles II and James II. Open Library dates this work's publication to 1856. The link is a search, so you can choose a full multi-volume diary rather than a one-year excerpt. See it on Amazon
The Splendid and the Vile (2020), Erik Larson. Larson's account of Winston Churchill's first year as prime minister, while Britain was being bombed. Open Library dates it to 2020. A Blitz book, not a Churchill biography from birth. See it on Amazon
Londoners (2012), Craig Taylor. An oral history. The Granta edition is subtitled The Days and Nights of London Now As Told by Those Who Love It, Hate It, Live It, Left It, and Long for It. Open Library dates it to 2012. See it on Amazon
Memoirs and travel writing
First person, and not all of it stays inside the M25. Bryson is touring Britain. Orwell splits the book with Paris. Hanff is the one who makes a bookshop on Charing Cross Road feel like a correspondence you were allowed to read.
84, Charing Cross Road (1970), Helene Hanff. Letters from Helene Hanff in New York to a bookshop at 84, Charing Cross Road. Open Library dates the book to 1970. The link is a Warner paperback. The shop is gone. The letters are the point. See it on Amazon
Down and Out in Paris and London (1933), George Orwell. Orwell's memoir of poverty in Paris and in London. Open Library dates it to 1933. Half the book is not London. The link is a Penguin paperback. See it on Amazon
Notes from a Small Island (1995), Bill Bryson. Bryson's last trip around Britain before moving back to the United States. Open Library dates it to 1995. A Britain book that passes through London, not a London guidebook. See it on Amazon
The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (1973), Helene Hanff. Hanff's 1973 book, the one to read after 84, Charing Cross Road. Open Library does not store a plot summary, so this note does not invent one. The link is a Moyer Bell edition. See it on Amazon
Mudlarking (2019), Lara Maiklem. Objects found on the Thames foreshore. Open Library dates the book to 2019. The link is the 2020 Bloomsbury edition subtitled Lost and Found on the River Thames. See it on Amazon
The best London guidebooks
Three current editions, for three kinds of trip. We name the edition year because the publisher page states it. The link searches that ISBN-13 so you are not sent to a 2017 printing by accident. Pocket guides and "top 10" spinoffs are different books, and they are not given their own entries here.
Rick Steves London (2026), Rick Steves and Gene Openshaw. The 26th edition, June 2026, 595 pages. The publisher says this full London book suits a trip of four days or more. A few London days inside a longer Britain trip may be covered by his England book instead. The link is a search for this ISBN-13, not an older edition. See it on Amazon
Lonely Planet London (2025), Jade Bremner, Vivienne Dovi, Steve Fallon, Tharik Hussain, James Wong, Tasmin Wressell, and others. The 14th edition, 1 June 2025, 420 pages, in English. A neighborhood guide for a longer stay. The link searches this ISBN-13. It is not Lonely Planet Pocket London. See it on Amazon
DK London (2025), DK Travel. A visual guide: photos, maps, and itineraries. The paperback DK London is dated 4 September 2025, 352 pages. The link searches ISBN 9780241739495. DK's Top 10 London is a different book and is not listed here. See it on Amazon
Kids' books set in London
Age bands on the publisher sites move around, so these notes follow the format instead. A 32-page picture book is a read-aloud. Paddington, Mary Poppins, Peter Pan, and the Dalmatians are chapter books. The London Eye Mystery and the first Harry Potter novel are for a reader who wants a longer book. Hogwarts is not a London school.
A Bear Called Paddington (1960), Michael Bond. The Browns find a bear on a London railway platform, with a note that says "Please look after this bear." Open Library's earliest English edition is Houghton Mifflin, 1960. The link is a later Collins paperback of the same novel. A chapter book. See it on Amazon
Mary Poppins (1934), P. L. Travers. A London nanny arrives on the East Wind, with Jane and Michael Banks. Open Library dates the book to 1934. A chapter book, and not the same as the film. The link is a Houghton Mifflin edition. See it on Amazon
Peter Pan (1911), J. M. Barrie. The Darling children leave their nursery with Peter Pan for Neverland. Open Library dates this work to 1911, the year of Peter and Wendy. The London part is the beginning. The link is a Penguin paperback. See it on Amazon
The Hundred and One Dalmatians (1956), Dodie Smith. Pongo and Missis set out to rescue their puppies from Cruella de Vil. It starts in a London household and then leaves the city. Open Library dates it to 1956. A chapter book. See it on Amazon
This is London (1959), Miroslav Sasek. Sasek's picture book of the city. Open Library dates the work to 1959. The link is the 2004 Universe hardcover, 64 pages, a reprint rather than the first printing. A read-aloud. See it on Amazon
Katie in London (2003), James Mayhew. A picture book, 32 pages. The earliest English edition we could verify is the Orchard Books hardcover of 29 May 2003. A read-aloud for a child who wants the landmarks as a story. See it on Amazon
The Queen's Knickers (1993), Nicholas Allan. A picture book, 32 pages in the paperback we checked. Open Library dates it to 1993. A read-aloud, and a joke about the Queen rather than a history. See it on Amazon
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone (1997), J. K. Rowling. The school is not in London. Diagon Alley, the Leaky Cauldron, and King's Cross are. Privet Drive is in Surrey. Open Library dates the novel to 1997. Ask for the British title. The US title is Sorcerer's Stone. See it on Amazon
The London Eye Mystery (2008), Siobhan Dowd. Ted and Kat watch their cousin board the London Eye. He is not there when the capsule lands. A longer mystery for a confident reader. The linked David Fickling hardcover is 2008. See it on Amazon
A Walk in London (2011), Salvatore Rubbino. A picture book for a child who wants to walk the city. Open Library dates it to 2011 and files it under juvenile London history. See it on Amazon
London cookbooks
Two books tied to London kitchens, and one Dorset meat book that people pack anyway. None of them is a restaurant reservation.
Nose to Tail Eating (1999), Fergus Henderson. Henderson's cookbook of British nose-to-tail cooking, the food he is known for at his London restaurant. Open Library dates it to 1999. The link is a search, so you can pick a current printing. See it on Amazon
Dishoom (2019), Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, and Naved Nasir. The first cookbook from the Dishoom restaurant, dated 2019. The link is the Bloomsbury edition with that subtitle. Cook from it after you have eaten there, or before. See it on Amazon
The River Cottage Meat Book (2004), Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. A meat book from River Cottage in Dorset, not a London restaurant book. Open Library dates it to 2004. The link is the 2007 Ten Speed Press hardcover. It is here as the British meat reference, and it will not tell you where to eat in town. See it on Amazon
Photo and coffee-table books
Books to look at. They will not replace a guidebook, and they will not get you into a museum.
Spitalfields Life (2013), The Gentle Author. A portrait of people and streets in Spitalfields. Open Library dates it to 2013. The link is the Hodder and Stoughton edition. A book to read in the neighborhood, then walk. See it on Amazon
London: Portrait of a City (2012), Reuel Golden. A pictorial history. Open Library dates it to 2012 and files it under pictorial works. The link is a search. Coffee-table size, not a guidebook. See it on Amazon
Read it, then see it
If the Harry Potter chapters are what you want on the ground, Diagon Alley and King's Cross are the London scenes, and the studio tour is a separate day outside the city. Our Harry Potter Studio Tour guide compares the ways of getting there.
Read The Five before you book a walk in Whitechapel. The tour comparison is on our Jack the Ripper tours page, including which operators talk about the women rather than the legend.
Pepys, the Great Stink, and the plague journal all pass the Tower and the old City. If you want the fortress with a guide, start with our Tower of London tours.
Still deciding whether the city is worth the fare at all, books or no books? Read is London worth visiting before you build a reading list around a trip you have not planned.
Prefer to listen? Start an Audible free trial (for eligible new members) and use it on one of the books above. Try Audible free
