The Spirit of London

2013 | Art, Photography & Fashion

A copy of this title is being given to each participating athlete in the London 2012 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games.
Also available
Special edition, limited to 60 numbered copies
Paperback edition
The Spirit of London is an outstanding photographic record of London in 2012, which celebrates HM Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee and the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The book - a legacy - paints with a broad brush the changing seasons, personalities and cultures that makes up the colourful mosaic that is London today.
One moment we are transported to spring crocuses at Hampton Court Palace. The next we are on the hallowed turf at Wimbledon. Then we are tobogganing in the snow in Richmond Park.
In another instant we visit the richly historic Guildhall with Prime Minister David Cameron at the Lord Mayor's Banquet. We find ourselves at the Chelsea Flower Show or watching the Notting Hill Carnival. Perhaps we make a brief stop at a fencing tournament in Camden... the Boat race on the River Thames... or discover ourselves dreamily listening to the thwack of leather on willow at Lord's Cricket Ground... at Regent's Park Open Air Theatre.
We join the crowds in Trafalgar Square to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton... and stand in admiration of the 21st-century skyscrapers in the Docklands area at Canary Wharf.
And what a joy, on a summer evening, to stroll from St Martin-in the-Fields, along Pall Mall and through Green Park, to watch the sun explode behind Wellington Arch and then slip gently to its resting place for the night.

Anthony Osmond-Evans (Author)