"London's long and dense history make it, more than any other city, a fiction", claims Groes in this study of the way writers make and remake the city in their imaginations. It's debatable whether London is indeed unique in this regard, but Groes has written a work of impressive insight and erudition. From the Thatcher era through the New Labour years, writers were united by a desire to "resist and reverse the increasing fragmentation of the metropolis". He highlights a "sense of crisis" pervading the work of writers such as JG Ballard, Iain Sinclair and Martin Amis. By contrast, Ian McEwan sees continuity and promise in the city where others find disintegration and decline. Salman Rushdie, Zadie Smith and Monica Ali reinvigorated and internationalised the London novel, bringing new layers of non-western language and culture to an already diverse city. But the days of the "exciting, energetic London novel" may be numbered, thinks Groes, due in part to risk-averse publishers but also to the suburbanisation of the city.