In the same way that Damon Runyon’s characters leapt off the page and became part of the popular imagination, so every city needs its heroes and its faces — mythical and legendary. London is no different, and if you’ve lived here for any serious amount of time, you will have accumulated a number of people who define the city.
It might be your local publican, might be the bloke who works in the greengrocers down the road, or the barrister you always end up talking to at the football, or even the journalist you’ve befriended in your neighbourhood cafe. For years there were half a dozen chaps I was on nodding terms with, who worked in various record shops around town; I never really knew them, but they were always around. It was confusing when they drifted away.
