On London Extra: A fiction promise

How I will read (and write) more London novels. Plus a quiz encore, a ULEZ study, a Twilight Bark and more

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For reasons that must remain top secret for now, I recently sat in a recording studio and read out some lines from Alan Hollinghurst's brilliant novel The Line Of Beauty, in which its hero drives an open-topped sports car along Park Lane, "slowed and stalled in the inexhaustible confusion of roadworks and traffic and construction" amid "the squeals of half a dozen near-collisions".

Published in 2004, the book evokes with delicious clarity the dazzle and decadence of the Margaret Thatcher era in a London on the point of recovering its economic muscle. Dipping into it again, as I often do, inspired an urge to make a New Year's resolution to read more London fiction. It is a pledge I have committed to before, but never truly honoured. How can I stick to it in 2024?

Promises, promises and famous last words, but perhaps I should set a target and report on my progress in On London Extra every week. I could quote passages from whichever London novel I'm reading, recommend it (or otherwise) once I've completed it and consider any suggestions you might have for which one to read next. It could all amount to nothing as my waking hours become devoured by election coverage and making sense of housing stats, but I'm going to give it a go.