NECROPOLIS by catharine arnold:
a DIVE INTO MORBID SIDE OF LONDON

As someone who moved to London from another country purely for its burial grounds and dark history (yup!) I knew I needed Necropolis in my life – and it didn’t disappoint, instantly becoming one of my all-time favourites!

Catharine Arnold is a journalist, academic and popular historian with extra degree in psychology. Her love for graveyards started young, when she used to walk home from school through Nottingham’s Rock Cemetery, admiring its marble angels. After moving to London and craving peaceful green spaces, she started exploring its iconic Victorian gardens of sleep. Highgate sparked the idea for Necropolis, but digging into history made her realise, that this whole city is basically one massive graveyard!

Catharine is best known for her London quartet, published by Simon & Schuster: Necropolis: London and its Dead (2006), Bedlam: London and its Mad (2008), City of Sin: London and its Vices (2011), and Underworld London: Crime and Punishment in the Capital City (2012).

To me, the cover screams ‘sit down and dive in’ – you can easily tell it’s not one of those quick flip-through books with short blurbs between pictures! The editing is spot on, super organized and clear. It’s kept simple, with cute touches like tiny tombstone-style winged heads dividing sections of chapters. The typography and layout are beautifully done and easy on the eyes. Plus, it’s lightweight and compact, making it perfect for tossing in your bag for a quick read on the tube, train, or bus!

The writing is absolutely fantastic – entertaining and engaging. Honestly, you don’t even know when all that knowledge sneaks into your brain! The flow and structure are great – everything is there for a reason, pulled together seamlessly. Plus, I love how the author keeps the tone light and breezy, even when telling the most gruesome stories!

Arnold explores how London has handled its dead over the centuries, serving up a captivating mix of archaeology, architecture, and anecdotes – all with a generous sprinkle of dark humour. It’s a wild ride through history from Roman to modern times, covering numerous plagues and epidemics, a few fires, two World Wars and even bus bombings, with each chapter perfectly put together and packed with the quirkiest facts.  

I was beyond excited to find not just one, but several chapters dedicated to my favourite Victorian era! The obsession with death, overflowing graveyards, exploding coffins, the cemetery business, burial reformers and body snatchers – it’s all in here! Oh, and let’s not forget the gravediggers who had to hit the bottle just to get through their day. Honestly, I can’t even tell how many times I’ve re-read these chapters…

My favourite moment reading Necropolis? I was on the tube, heading towards South Kensington and the V&A… and just as the train was pulling away from Knightsbridge station, I hit a section about how the tunnel curves between Knightsbridge and South Kensington because they couldn’t drill through the mass of skeletal remains buried in Hyde Park… How eerie!

I might just be the perfect target audience for this publication, as I like everything about it… The only thing that comes to mind is that it only has 15 small black-and-white pictures spread across almost 300 pages, and it’s not enough for visual learners like me. But hey, I can totally live with that in exchange for all those jaw-dropping facts the book’s packed with!

If you’re into history with a macabre twist, you’ll absolutely love Necropolis – it’s packed with so much fun and nerdy goodness! I can’t wait to dive into more of Catharine Arnold’s books – but also crossing my fingers for a follow-up covering 2007 onwards… I mean, we definitely need an updated edition with a chapter on the Covid pandemic and the Queen’s death, right???

by Catharine Arnold
Simon and Schuster 2007
www.simonandschuster.co.uk