Shakespeare's Local: A History of Britain Through One Pub. Pete Brown

Just south of London Bridge, over a narrow courtyard opposite Borough Market, leans the George Inn, a magnificent galleried coaching house, its ramshackle warren of panelled rooms substantially unaltered for centuries. Chaucer's pilgrims probably stopped here; Shakespeare may have popped in for a pint; Dickens certainly did. This marvellously entertaining book chronicles the pub's fortunes over six centuries, and vividly evokes its colourful clientele of sailors, highwaymen, pedlars and ladies of the night.