content: A good source for minute information, this book functions better as a reference book than a comprehensive take on 18th century London. Readers should be advised that the first few chapters are heavy on the development of bridges and neighborhoods and such, yet there are no accompanying maps. If you are good at picturing how one lane leads into another and so on, this will be a delight. I found it extremely frustrating.The other immediate and annoying aspect is that, as other reviewers have correctly noted, Ms. Parks is no Johnsonian. Those who unluckily appreciate the Life do not understand his conversation for what it was - "bad manners." I feel that she uses his name to sell a work that could otherwise stand on its own. (Or maybe as "Horace Walpole's London.") In any case, those expecting to find the comfort and familiar parlance of the big guy are going to be sorely wanting, as I was, for the late, great Mary Hyde.