Doctor Zipp's Amazing Octo-com

The 'London Evening Press and Star' is a local newspaper holding its own in a time of fast-moving, celebrity-obsessed, click-bait global news. And the unnamed narrator of this book is one of its reporters, an old-school journalist dedicated to his beat and his craft. But with every news item there is a bigger, more complex tale, and drawing on his notebooks he reveals the stories behind the stories, and the journeys he has taken to discover their hearts.

Meet Eddie Roll, karaoke-barge proprietor, and find out how he keeps his business afloat on the city's canals. Hear how Batman and Robin leapt from the pages of a comic book to come to the rescue of someone in need. Discover what links Elvis Presley and meals on wheels, learn of Kermit the Hermit of Hampstead Heath, spend time in the company of a generous Irishman from NW1. And read about the life and death of the enigmatic Doctor Zipp, a marine biologist and inter-species language expert who believed we could learn a lot from the octopus.

If a city is its people and their stories, then this is London at its warm-hearted, eccentric best.