David

David – the Seigneur of this favoured realm – broods over words, breeds enthusiasms and is “unmanageable.”* A balterer, literary historian, university lecturer, journalist, and lifelong thanatophobe, he’s also the London Walks “pen” – he writes “the famous white leaflet”, let alone the document you’re reading (this website). Or, for that matter, the “piece” you’re listening to! In short, this is what I sound like – chewy diphthongs and all. The Old Kensington, and Old Hampstead Village chapters in our book. Both of which, needless to say, were inspired by and draw on the walks that I guide in those two magical London neighbourhoods. And the Thames chapter, which opens the book, was inspired by my Along the Thames Pub Walk.

*He blames his gene pool, especially the contribution made to it by an American vice president in the dark backward and abysm of time. Yes, that vice president: the notorious bankrupt and womanizer who spread his seed across two continents; who wed, at 77, a 58-year-old former prostitute who had become the richest woman in America (she divorced him less than a year later on the grounds of his infidelity**); a notorious bankrupt and womaniser who was tried for treason.

And those were just his misdemeanours. 

**It wasn’t exactly good riddance: he made off with 13,000 very good reasons of hers – 13,000 very good reasons for having him up for larceny as well as infidelity. And it goes without saying, he went through the 13,000 reasons like a dose of salts.

See all of David's walks