Author(s): Hossein Amirsadeghi, Maryam Eisler, Andrea Belloli

Art

A new creative sizzle is in the air, establishing the backdrop for a major revival across all of Londons creative sectors. Having invented the Swinging 60s, punk rock in the 70s and Cool Britannia in the 90s, London in the 2010s is firing up the engine of growth and renewal yet again. Encompassing a unique, no-holds-barred exploration of the city as the contemporary worlds creative centre, London Burning: Portraits from a Creative City seeks to define exactly what it is that makes Britains capital the international urban HQ for creativity and innovation. Why and how has the city become a creative universe of its own making? How does it continue to regenerate, to renew its creative pulse, to confound the naysayers who pop up on the horizon every decade or so to foretell its decline? Over a hundred intimate, probing interviews reveal not only the private lives and views of some of Londons leading creative personalities but also the variegated urban scene they inhabit as observed through the personal prisms of these movers and shakers, whether established or new to the scene, young or old, high-brow or populist. Searching out the citys hidden treasures, unravelling the apparent simplicity defining its urban and semi-rural landscapes, unmasking the frivolous and highlighting tastes from the fantastic to the fastidious, London Burning: Portraits from a Creative City will unlock secret passions, undress social mundanities and address outrageous profanities.