London, My Life! or The Sedentary Jew

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“I think it was good to be away from London for a while, both to taste the south western air and to see home from a distance. I doubt if I’ll ever use up my London history, as it were. Mother London, King of the City and the short stories, including Jerry Cornelius of course, still haven’t used a fraction of what I can draw on autobiographically, while my flying visits to London help me keep up with what’s going on and the changes that are happening. My new Jerry Cornelius novel, Modem Times, is set in London, though it’s mainly retrospective. I think I’ve got quite a few London stories in me—which I can intersperse with Paris stories, too!

“I’ve always liked the idea of the Wandering Jew since I first came across Eugène Sue’s story (Le Juif Errant, 1844-45). And people of Jewish origin frequently identify with the ideas of the wanderer—and of the diaspora. I’ve always liked the idea, too, of a guy doomed to remain in sedentary comfort for eternity—maybe the other side of the Jewish character. So, wanting to do a book which was also a sort of mythological history of London, the combination seemed ideal.”

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