Neverwhere

My copy

Neverwhere, by Neil Gaiman

As long as I'm going to London, I need to brush up on my London geography, right? Well, how about my fictional London Below geography? It's a long time since I read Neverwhere.

Richard Mayhew is your average British schlub guy, much like Arthur Dent, but the thing about Richard is that he is kind. When he trips over an injured girl while on his way to a socially important occasion with his fiancée, he chooses to help the girl--and soon finds that his ordinary life has evaporated. He's now an unwilling, bewildered denizen of London Below, where all the forgotten things fall and monsters lurk in the dark.

This was Neil Gaiman's first novel, and it didn't start off as a novel at all. First, it was a BBC mini-series on TV, and aired in 1996. I've seen it, but it's been a very long time, and now I want to watch it again. Gaiman then turned it into a novel, which has been through a few different incarnations too--my version is the first one, so now I'm wondering what was added. Then a comic series was inspired by the novel, there were several stage versions, and a radio dramatization came out a couple of years ago which made quite a splash. Thus, Neverwhere is Gaiman's Hitchhicker's Guide.

Lots of interesting covers; I like this one

The whole thing is inspired by London, very often by Tube stations that take on a different identity in London Below. I looked up the little street where Richard finds the Marquis de Carabas; it's a real place. Knightbridge becomes Night's Bridge, a perilous crossing. Richard visits Earl's Court and talks with the earl, goes through an ordeal at Blackfriars, and ventures ever deeper under London, eventually to find a labyrinth, a monster, and an angel.

It's a great classic of dark Gaiman fantasy, so don't miss it.