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A PRIVATE school ponce is an unlikely candidate to delve deep into London's impoverished East End.
But when property prices force journalist Tarquin Hall from the middle-class suburbia of his youth to a grotty attic in Brick Lane, he is forced to adapt to a 'foreign' London.
This moving, gritty and often funny auto-biography sees him thrown headfirst into the vibrant cultural melting pot simmering in the famous street.
Hall's pitiful bank balance initially appears to be all that he shares with his ethnically diverse neighbours.
But his life soon becomes inextricably linked with theirs in relationships of mutual intrigue, respect and compassion.
This honest and impassioned account of a year spent living in Brick Lane juxtaposes Hall's situation as a cultural outsider in his own city with brilliantly evocative portrayals of the various...