The Gentle Author

Little is known of the enigmatic Gentle Author, but everyone knows The Gentle Author is their intimate confidante and friend who reveals the candid stories of the remarkable people to be found in Spitalfields.

Drawing comparisons with Samuel Pepys, Henry Mayhew and Charles Dickens, The Gentle Author has gained an extraordinary following in recent years by writing hundreds of lively pen portraits of the infinite variety of people who live and work in the East End of London.

Since 2009, The Gentle Author has published a daily story at SPITALFIELDS LIFE amounting to over 4,000 tales about the culture of London and the East End, which are now the basis for The Gentle Author’s Tour of Spitalfields.

Instrumental in founding The East End Trades Guild and The East End Preservation Society, The Gentle Author led successful community campaigns to save the Marquis of Lansdowne pub of 1838 from demolition and the five-hundred-year-old Bethnal Green Mulberry Tree from being dug up by developers.

The Gentle Author has published numerous books including Spitalfields Life, The Gentle Author’s London Album, Spitalfields Nippers, The Cries of London, The Life & Times of Mr Pussy and The Creeping Plague of Ghastly Facadism, and written features for The Financial Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, World Of Interiors, New Statesman and Frieze.

The Gentle Author is proud to champion the work of painter Doreen Fletcher, publishing a monograph of her work and curating her major retrospective in 2019.

Drawing a large international audience, Spitalfields Life was chosen by The Guardian as the best London blog among the best city blogs around the world.

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