Hackney, that rose red empire: a confidential report by Iain Sinclair
Date: 16 December 2009
Iain Sinclair's book is like an investigation. People are tracked down
: Roland Camberton to Herne Hill, Jean-Luc Godard to
St John's Wood. Things are connected
: Lauriston Road and Julie Christie
; the
German Hospital and Joseph Conrad. Stories are recovered
: the Labyrinth on
Dalston Lane; Astrid Proll and the Matchbox Toy Factory. Now and then
, the detail threatens to reveal a bigger picture
: coincidences that might be more, geographical patterns
or the outline of an explanation. Sinclair's investigation is personal. He
has lived in Hackney for
fourty years and he wants to know what he's been doing.
It is filled with ideas and encompasses a vast local history.
MM