Reissue pending, with new material
William’s book about Spitalfields in the East End of London, This Bright Field (‘a travel book in one place’), was published by Methuen in 2000 and inspired a restaurant of the same name as well as Madness’ 2009 album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate.
Some Reviews of This Bright Field
“The book is full of flavoursome detail . . . Taylor sympathetically takes the lid off entire worlds in a way that a professional journalist might envy.”
Sunday Times
“Taylor’s account . . . is both loving and perspicacious. Never a tourist, his gentle curiosity provides an accomplished portrait of a largely misconstrued area”
The Times
“It is a relief to come across William Taylor’s book which makes a serious attempt to get beneath the clichés. Taylor is an enthusiastic, earnest but also humorous Oxford graduate born into a family with a long tradition of vicars. . . Taylor’s own behaviour is not always vicarish. He can be devious and uncharitable, from which the book benefits hugely, as it enables him to punctuate the inflated sentimentalities of cockneys and New Georgians alike. But the dominant tone is one of heartfelt fascination and it produces a humane study of what is a precious patch of urban mulch.”
Rowan Moore, Evening Standard
“Most original”
Simon Jenkins, Evening Standard, on his “books of the year”
“The unique strength of Taylor’s book likes in its forthright honesty. This Bright Field is a lively, outspoken and sometimes funny account of his spiritual education”
The Independent
“It also handles that most difficult task – to find the exotic at home – and in this he succeeds”
The Independent on Sunday (hardback)
“A moving autobiography and an astute critique of organized religions, the class system, and the effects of globalized market forces on this lively multicultural community”
The Independent on Sunday (paperback)
Chosen by Suzi Feay as her “paperback of the week” and described by Mariella Frostrup as “the most magical confection”
Radio 4’s Open Book
CONTACT
Literary Agent: Georgina Capel Associates Ltd, 29 Wardour Street, London W1D 6PS T: +44 (0)20 7734 2414