“all that mighty heart is lying still” It’s what you’d expect, isn’t it? One of our actor-guides, Oliver Beamish, realised that Wordworth’s famous London sonnet was never more suited to the occasion, to the city, than right now. And so here it is, professionally delivered, professionally performed. And look, I’m not going to hide our lamp under a basket. There are getting on for 20 very fine actors – actors who act in West End shows and on the box and on the big screen – who, when they’re “resting”, guide for London Walks. They – like their colleagues (lawyers, museum curators, geologists, doctors, award-winning Blue Badge guides, etc.) – are accomplished professionals, people of real substance. This is the calibre of guide – and guiding – you get, uniquely, when you go with London Walks. A piece of advice – take it or leave it – don’t be taken in by the flim-flam of “gift-wrapping”, of advertising claims that are too good to be true (you better believe it, if they’re too good to be true they’re not true). The days of your having to make a “purchase decision” – how you’re going to spend your most precious, non-replenishable resource, some of your time – on the blandishments of gift-wrapping, those days are over. You can thumb your nose at the gift-wrapping. Make your decision instead on the genuine article: the voice, the guiding, the intelligence, the presence, the skill-set. Let’s say, by way of example, you’ve booked Oliver for a Jack the Ripper walk – all you need to do is hear that first 38 seconds – it’s in our shortest Podcast – of his Ripper walk and you know, just like that, that you’re going to have a great walk, are in for a wonderful couple of hours, that you’ve got the right guide, have made the right decision. For the record, last West End hit Oliver was in was War Horse. It’s also nice to know that as a youngster he was a Westminster Abbey chorister, was educated – one of the elite 36 – at the Abbey’s choir school.