True to form I found myself reading Hawksmoor by Peter Ackroyd donkey’s years after everybody else. I decided to read it when I saw that it was in David Bowie’s top one hundred favourite books list. Jack had already read it and we have a copy of the book in the house, one of the many books we have unread by me.

It has to be said that it’s a bit of a strange one, but enjoyable. It was first published in 1985.

Chapter one begins in 17th century London and is written in 17th century fashion. After the Great Fire much of London is in need of being rebuilt and Sir Christopher Wren and other architects are busy designing churches to replace the ones which were burnt down. But one of the architects, a young protege of Wren, isn’t quite what people think he is. Secretly he’s a follower of an old religion and as far as he’s concerned each place of worship needs a human sacrifice. He makes sure that that happens, sometimes making it look like an accident.

Each 17th century chapter is followed by a contemporary one in which it seems there are echoes from the past, including murders.

At times this is quite a weird book but it’s very atmospherically written by someone who obviously loves London and its history. It’s a good read but I suspect that David Bowie loved it a lot more than I did.

This book could probably be described as being a classic now as it’s over 30 years since it was first published, but I didn’t have it on my Classics Club list so I’m not going to add it in now.