Local historian Ricci de Freitas has produced a splendid companion volume to his earlier book ‘Tales of Brunswick Square -Bloomsbury’s Untold Past‘. It documents the development of the area from open fields where robberies and murders were committed to the spacious streets and splendid garden squares where ‘polished society’ could feel at home. In a metaphorical house-to-house stroll around the foremost Bloomsbury square the lives of its most notable former occupants are revealed in prose and lavish illustrations. Fascinating before and after photographs clearly show the changes, especially since the years of the Second World War.

The book is published by the Marchmont Association at £19.95 and can be obtained locally from Skoob Bookshop in the Brunswick Centre.