London on Film (Screening Spaces)

This book, a collection of essays by expert film researchers and lecturers, contributes to the growing body of scholarship on cinematic cities by looking at how one city―London―has been represented on film. In particular, the collection examines how films about London have responded to social, material and political change in the city, either by capturing and so influencing how we think about London, or by acting as catalysts (intentionally or otherwise) for public debate. Individual essays explore films ranging from the earliest actualities of the late nineteenth century to contemporary blockbusters. The book will appeal to film scholars and students, as well as to readers interested in the history of London and its changing image.

Pam Hirsch is a biographer and has recently retired from her University Lectureship in Literature, Film History and Theory at the University of Cambridge, UK.  Her latest publication on film is The Cinema of the Swimming Pool (2014). Other essays on film have largely been concerned with wartime filmmaking and the representation of adolescents. 

Chris O’Rourke is Lecturer in Film and Television History at the University of Lincoln, UK. He has published on various aspects of British cinema history, including articles in Film History and Early Popular Visual Culture. His first book, Acting for the Silent Screen: Film Actors and Aspiration between the Wars, was published in 2017.