London: The Concise Biography by Peter Ackroyd

Growing up as a child, I would routinely wander through the streets of the Old City where my father lives in Shoreditch, passing the Jack the Ripper-haunted streets of Norton Folgate, the remnants of the old Roman Walls, the plague pits and mass graves that were being unearthed as the foundations for huge new glass buildings were being laid. As I took in these surroundings, I remember feeling a sense of history and all its ages existing side by side, like the whole history of London was happening at once, which was an early inspiration that you will see in the way in which I compose my paintings now.

So when I first came across Peter Ackroyd’s epic biography of London, in which the city is described as living, a living breathing entity, as if it were the life span of a person, I immediately connected to it, with stories of how the commercial activities of areas such as Smithfield’s (where my grandfather worked in the meat market) have been a site of continuous use by that industry, going back thousands of years, as well as the scorched earth from Boudicca’s attack on Roman London, that can be still found within the layers of earth beneath the city.

Reading Ackroyd’s book reminded me that London was alive, and my early experiences of the city were again awoken; I began taking long walks visiting its significant sites, dirty back streets and acquainting myself with the ancient spectres of the city. On one such walk I found myself on Tower Hill; unbeknown to me, it was the day of the Spring Equinox and there was a group of druids performing a ritual, which changed my life and the direction of my art for ever.

Mummers, Maypoles and Milkmaids: A Journey Through The English Ritual Year by Sara Hannant 

After accidentally stumbling on the Druids on Tower Hill performing their Spring Equinox ceremony, I went looking for a book where I could find out more and soon came across what would prove to become my guide to the seasonal customs of England. From the moment where I saw the cover, where the Green Man of Bankside smiles gazing out in his elaborate foliate costume, I instantly connected to it; not only had I just discovered that London has its very own Green Man, a figure that I was familiar with as a child, when my grandfather used to tell me stories that terrified of me of sightings of the Green Man walking through the woods, but page after page I was introduced to community rituals taking place all across England that I had no idea existed, from the Abbots Bromley Horn Dance to the May Day celebrations of Padstow in Cornwall.

Most exciting of all, these were not in faraway places; these were towns, cities and villages that I could reach by bus, train and foot, and a whole new chapter of my life began in which I would begin venturing out and documenting these remarkable traditions for myself that would soon become the basis for a whole new series of paintings, a documentary film and finding myself as an artist. I have a lot to thank this book for.

The Modern Antiquarian: A Pre-Millennial Odyssey Through Megalithic Britain by Julian Cope

As my travels and research evolved into the folklore of Britain, standing stones became an essential stop of point in whichever part of Britain that I happened to be travelling. This book is the holy grail when it comes to books about standing stones, and for telling you where to find them. Here, the musician and songwriter Julian Cope visits, documents and writes field notes for over 300 prehistoric sites across Britain – from the far corners of Orkney to the tip of the Lands’ End peninsula, and everywhere else in between.

There is an infectious passion in Copes’ writing, and his descriptions marked the start of my own personal journey, where I felt compelled to get out and experience them for myself. The author communes with the past, making it relevant today; at no point in this book do you feel like you are reading history, but rather you are taken on a journey into the future through the past, shedding the shackles of the Roman Conquest, colonialism and capitalism and finding ourselves once again in the pre-Roman mindset, where communities honoured the seasons, built monuments to understand the cosmos, performed elaborate rituals and lived in harmony with the land. In the face of the current climate crisis, we can most certainly learn a thing or two from our ancient farming ancestors.

Watling Street: Travels Through Britain and Its Ever-Present Past by John Higgs 

In this book we join John Higgs on a walk as he rambles along the ancient road of Watling Street, from Dover to Anglesey, a road once used by the Ancient Britons, and which was later paved by the Romans. We still use this road today, although now under new names and guises – such as the A2 motorway! Along the way, remarkable stories of the past are unearthed, in which Higgs demonstrates how the entwining layers of deep time inform the contemporary world in which we live today.

This is particularly apparent during a visit to Milton Keynes on the Summer Solstice where I was amazed to learn that the town itself just like Stone Henge was built to align with the rising midsummer sun, and the road that runs through the centre of the town, Midsummer Boulevard, is illuminated once a year on the Solstice. There is even a sun monument where people gather to mark the occasion. Milton Keynes is in fact a sun temple town!

.

.

Ben Edge is an artist, songwriter, film-maker, author and folklorist, whose work depicts the extraordinary lives of ordinary people. Ever since serendipitously stumbling on a Druid ceremony on Tower Hill, London, Edge has been obsessively documenting the seasonal customs of Britain and beyond, establishing himself as a rising star in both the art world and as a leading voice in the current folk renaissance. In 2021, Edge’s Ritual Britain exhibition attracted over 10,000 thousand visitors with extensive media coverage and viral exposure across social media.

---

To stay up to date with all things literary and London, subscribe and receive a copy of The London Magazine to your door every two months, while also enjoying full access to our extensive digital archive of essays, literary journalism, fiction and poetry.