London Orbital – Iain Sinclair

I grew up right on the M25 (London’s ring road) and I’ve been a fan of Sinclair’s for years, so I was really looking forward to this record of a circular walk around the motorway. Thankfully, it lived up to my expectations. Sinclair is a shameless self-mythologiser, depicting his travel as an act of “psychogeography”, a kind of occult-historical-literary quest, clashing creatively with the ephemera of the modern world. He is constantly allusive, and many of his cultural touchstones are ones that I share – William Blake, Werner Herzog, Bill Drummond.

The other thing that needs mentioning is that the book is a very funny one. The chapter in which Bluewater shopping centre gets a well-deserved kicking is a particular pleasure.