I first lived in London, England as a university student and from then until now, it’s a city that will always have a special place in my heart.

As part of my recent UK trip, I spent three days in London and, although too brief, it was still special.

The past

In certain neighbourhoods, reminders of my twenty-something self are everywhere.

Although the university hall of residence where I lived and a favourite local sandwich shop are long gone, college buildings, pubs, streets and nearby garden squares still look much the same.

The Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, where I once bought the cheapest ‘standing’ tickets to see ballets is as I remember it, and tourists still cluster in the piazza (central square) to watch street performers.

London’s cityscape is also filled with visual reminders of a history stretching back almost two thousand years to Roman times.

From remaining bits of the London Wall, built by those Romans, to medieval churches, Victorian Wash Houses and more, for those who know how to look for it, the past is all around.

The present

Like all cities, though, London is also a living, constantly evolving place where the present is layered atop history.

Office workers hurry through ancient squares, phones pressed to their ears.

Modern steel and glass soar skyward above and behind much older structures.

And as the local population shifts and changes, from French Huguenots in seventeenth century Spitalfields, to Eastern Europeans in contemporary West London, each in turn leaves a mark.

Where past and present collide

Whenever I visit London, I’m reminded of changes both in myself and the city I once called home.

Yet, it’s a place that grounds me and never fails to give writing inspiration.

This time, as part of background research for Secrets of The Teacher Evacuees, the third book in my WW2 British home front story as Rose Warner, I took a ‘Working Women of the East End’ walking tour with Women of London, a specialist women’s history tour company.

If you’ve read The Teacher Evacuees, Secrets of The Teacher Evacuees is Nell Potter’s story, and she grew up in the East End.

Most of what I learned on the tour won’t go into the book, but it gave me an important sense of Nell’s world—the East End’s poverty and social problems but also its vibrancy, political activism and mutual support and community resilience.

Throughout our lives, we all call different places ‘home’ and that’s also a theme running through my writing.

London will always feel somewhat like ‘home’ to me, and I return as often as I can.

And when I can’t visit lovely London in person? There’s always my imagination and, of course, books!

If you haven’t started The Teacher Evacuees series, find out more and get the first book here.

If you’re an audiobook listener, find the story on Audible and other platforms (with a different cover).