Book Review – London Fog: The Biography by Christine L Corton

Hardback by The Belknap Press of Harvard University, £22.95

Thick pea-souper smogs are popularly associated with the Victorian
London of Dickens, Sherlock Holmes and Jack the Ripper (none of whose murders, Corton notes, actually took place on foggy nights). But their precursors were first noted in the 17th century, and they still
occasionally (and lethally) recurred as late as 1962.

Corton’s capacious account covers their history and ill effects; also the
perverse pride some Londoners took in them. Here too is the damning
story of the endless, ineffectual government committees and half-
hearted legislation which for decades failed properly to address the
issue; parallels with modern inaction on global warming are obvious,
though oddly never explicitly raised.

There’s fascinating material here, but it would have had more impact for winnowing; too much material is repeated, too many very similar Victorian potboilers explored in excessive depth. Still, perhaps that sense of being lost in endless mazes of Victoriana fits the topic.