Charles Jennings
BOOKS BY THIS AUTHOR
- Title: Greenwich
- Description:
Greenwich was initially thought a poor choice for the millennium celebrations. Beyond the picturesque park, Observatory and Naval College, it is a sprawl of run-down estates. The transport links were ineffectual and the Dome site was a ghastly industrial wasteland, in a state of what Jennings calls "poisonous decay" thanks to chemical plants and gas works. Many considered Birmingham a better choice. What swung the decision was the weight of history. What could be a more appropriate place to mark the millenium than the very place where time itself is measured? Charles Jennings' Greenwich explores the history that culminated in the Dome--a story as curious and eclectic as the place itself. Somehow this obscure fishing village beyond city boundaries grew to become the centre of Britain's Navy, the birthplace of classical architecture and a Royal home. Greenwich Mean Time was declared in an 1880 Act of Parliament, having come into common use through railway timetable synchronisation. Before that, longitude, latitude and the positions of the stars were already been calculated at the Observatory. Jennings' previous portraits of Britain--the upper classes caricatured in People Like Us and Northern life explored in Up North--demonstrated his wry humour. But Greenwichis a very different, meandering history, which doesn't always capture the place and its people. The most fascinating material in the book is the working-class history and lurid folk law--wild beast shows, "tumbling" and intoxication at the Greenwich Fair; the highwaymen of Blackheath; notorious murderers--which could have filled an entire book in itself.--Sarah Champion 
- Title: Faintheart: An Englishman Ventures North Of The Border
- Description:
Seasoned journalist and writer Charles Jennings goes in search of the contradictions, cliches and surprises that make up a land that is singular in its clearly-held identity, cherished even by those with less than a second-cousin's-cat-once-removed claim to Scottish heritage. Stomping the quintessential Highlands from Inverness to Skye and risking frozen extremities to reach breathtaking Hebridean islands, he discovers a land of awe-inspiring beauty. And then travels city-wards to reach a nation of awe-inspiring iron(bru)-clad stomachs from the legendary deep-fried Mars Bar to the underrated and delicious haggis, classic oatcake, and fine whisky. Contemplating whether his great grandfather's legacy qualifies him to shed a tear at the sound of bagpipes, Charles Jennings compares the elegance of Edinbugh with the industrial action of Aberdeen, risks a pint in Kelvinside and sinks into the peaty bogs of Mull.
