Love London

A little while ago I wrote about my special gift of getting lost at any given opportunity. Personally I would have thought a character like Paddington Bear would have been a likely sympathiser but it seems the little marmalade-lover has improved drastically since he first turned up from Peru without a clue. Paddington, it would appear, is now the London guru with his very own guide to the capital.

I have a real soft spot for Paddington Bear, not least because in my day job we publish Michael Bond’s Monsieur Pamplemousse series so I’ve been privileged to meet him a few times. I say privileged because he really is a very lovely, charming man with a great sense of humour. Also on his last visit he brought in a bottle of champagne – and if you read my blog you’ll know I’m more than a little partial to men bearing fizz…

The reason I was looking at guides is because I’ve decided to get my butt into gear with regards to making the most of London and what it has to offer. For most of my maternity leave I kept to the green spaces of my zone 6 suburb and luxuriated in space and no crowds. So my first few days back in the hub were, to put it mildly, slightly terrifying. Now I’m back in the swing of things though I can’t wait to get out and about more. I’d forgotten just how much there is to do! For instance, this weekend my colleague is off to the Candlelight Club, a clandestine pop-up cocktail bar where she gets to dress up in a flapper frock and party like Gatsby's Daisy.

And then there’s the Poetry Parnassus currently on at the Southbank where hundreds of poets (and rappers, storytellers and singers) are all gathered to celebrate great literature. On Tuesday there was an incredible display of ‘raining poems’ where over 100,000 poems were dropped from the sky to the waiting crowds below. How amazing is that!

I have to admit to falling a little out of love with London when Little Bean was very tiny. But now I’m back in the game. And open to readers' recommendations?