‘London a History’ written and illustrated by Laura Carlin, published by Walker Studios.
The book is a celebration of the thousands of years of London’s history from prehistory to the present day. Covering both well-known events and everyday happenings in the lives of Londoners. A typeface has been created for the first time from Laura’s handwriting, which differentiates between Laura’s introduction to new events in the story of London, and the historical and contemporary quotes that are intermingled to provide a perspective from the time. Quotes, poems and historical accounts range from Geoffrey Chaucer and William Blake, to Benjamin Zephaniah and Simon Armitage.
The artworks have been created in a range of materials including watercolour, acrylic, ink, oil pastel and colouring pencil. A limited colour palette mostly ties to a palette of blacks and greys, red and burnt orange with a more limited interjection of blue and green. Each spread exists as a physical artwork, ranging in size from A4 to A3.
Shown here, a crop of an artworks of the Roman amphitheatre in Guilhall Yard, 200CE