The Man Who Drew London - Tapa dura

Hollar was born in Prague. As a young engraver making a precarious living wandering round Europe during the 30 Years War, he was picked up by a colourful English figure: Lord Arundel who had a passion for art, beautiful things and collecting. Arundel gave him employment and brought him back to London, where Hollar made a name for himself with his fashion plates, maps and panoramas. During the Civil War, Hollar was in exile with the royalists in Antwerp. He returned to England ahead of Charles II, and continued to make his unique and invaluable record of the period of the Restoration - and of London during a time of catastrophe and change.

Gillian Tindall is brilliant at evoking history and place. Her classic book about the hidden past of north London The Fields Beneath is being reissued this year. She is the author of Celestine (recreating the vanished world of a French peasant woman) and Martin Nadaud (a true view of the building of 19th century Paris seen through the eyes of a stone-mason). Gillian Tindall lives in Kentish Town.