Stories from south London  

Welcome to the south, the Surrey shore, the Sunny Side.

​

In the novel Wise Children Angela Carter wrote of London as two cities divided by a river much in the way there is a Buda and a Pest. I formerly saw it as a patchwork of off kilter mirrors; for every Hampstead there is a Dulwich, for Wapping a Rotherhithe and Hammersmith a Putney. However, in this model, where does Brixton -the setting for Carter’s novel- reflect? Also are there really Middlesex or Essex equivalents for Greenwich, Bermondsey, Tooting or Walworth? Nor, in the interests of balance are there Kent or Surrey Camden Towns, Clerkenwells or Notting Hills. However earnestly some people in East Dulwich might wish it so. 

An alternative view is that over millennia settlements including those at the South Work, the Lamb’s Harbour and the Deep Ford merged to become Britain’s second largest city. A city of millions with a diverse population.
 

There are two published collections Bus travel in South London and South Parks as well well as free downloadable poems celebrating the lives of creatures cut short by traffic. 
 

Get on a bus, go Transpontine and immerse yourself in some of the stories of the city over the water. Inside you’ll find angels, cyborgs, pirates and terrorists. There are shapeshifters, London folk demons and vengeful goddesses but also stories of love, friendship, family life, growing up and revenge.  Bus travel a collection of London fiction written by Chris Roberts set on or about or linked by South London bus routes. 

South Parks is a collection of short stories set in, about or around a selection of South London open spaces. Find out about ‘le marketing de Scooby Doo’, Peckham Rye’s gay cultural renaissance, who stole the soul of London and whether young Martisha gets it back. Meanwhile in Brockwell Park a song as old as time is sung again.  There are foxes and a vengeful toilet goddess but also stories of friendship and family life.