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Books | London calling |
 | | Chaucerian detail is laid on with a trowel, and there is a rich strewing of antique vocabulary. |
| | There is ypocras and mawmenee to drink, old fetarts go lusting after tuzziemuzzies, and there is even a glimpse of the fictional jewel said to lie in the head of a toad: "It is known," explains a character obligingly, "as the borax, or chelonitis." |
| | Period detail is one of Ackroyd's strong suits, and if he says a particular tree stood on a particular corner you tend to believe him. |
| books.guardian.co.uk /print/0,3858,4734132-110738,00.html (652 words) |
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