title: London Observed : Stories and Sketches
author: Doris May Lessing
description: Explicit tenderness is a hallmark of many of these tales. Here's art holding up a mirror to life to London, and declaring a vision untarnished, clear and steady.' - New Statesman Society
zlib_text: Jane Shemilt
  HOW FAR WE FALL
  
  Contents
  Prologue: Hampstead Heath
  ACT ONE
  Chapter 1
  Chapter 2
  Chapter 3
  Chapter 4
  Chapter 5
  Chapter 6
  Chapter 7
  Chapter 8
  Chapter 9
  Chapter 10
  Chapter 11
  Chapter 12
  Chapter 13
  Chapter 14
  Chapter 15
  ACT TWO
  Chapter 16
  Chapter 17
  
  Chapter 18
  Chapter 19
  Chapter 20
  Chapter 21
  Chapter 22
  ACT THREE
  Chapter 23
  Chapter 24
  Chapter 25
  Chapter 26
  Chapter 27
  Chapter 28
  Chapter 29
  Chapter 30
  ACT FOUR
  Chapter 31
  Chapter 32
  Acknowledgements
  Read More
  Follow Penguin
  
  By the same author
  Daughter
  The Drowning Lesson
  
  To my beloved family
  
  Fair is foul and foul is fair.
  
  Prologue
  Hampstead Heath
  At twilight, London has a fairground glitter.
  At this distance, the small streets and rows of houses fade from view. The
  graffiti and the gangs, the drunks and marauders, the foxes at the rubbish
  bins, everything vanishes in the dusk. What you see is not what you get,
  what you see is less than half of it.
  There are women, four of them gathered together under the trees. They
  share a 