Lindsey grew up on the London to Brighton commuter line and ended up in the capital by academic misadventure. Many years later, firmly rooted in Highbury she still gets lost south of the river but isn't shy of sallying forth or taking random buses just to see where they go.

Her favourite London things include Sadlers Wells, Waterloo Bridge, artsy fringe happenings, the 341 bus and knowing the back streets of the West End for tourist avoidance.

Lindsey spends her time herding cats and Londonistas, writing words and juggling an ungainly portfolio of freelance commitments while trying to get to the gym. She’s fond of a drink and very partial to cheese.

Hazel was born and raised in London (Zone 1) and, apart from a distressing three year enforced exile to a university town, has lived in London all her life. Along with many rambling, incoherent tales of her early days as an irregular food, arts and news contributor for Londonist before becoming Editor in May 2007, she has a long and varied tale of growing up in London following theatre, art, culture and anything with obscenities in the title, or naked people painted purple doing improvised dance.

With a day job at a national newspaper and an inability to turn down the chance to be on TV, she is all media, all the time, and usually available for comment but not before the first of two strong coffees in the morning.

M@ is a bewildered Northerner who has been captured by the magic of London, to the extent that he eschews traditional spellings of his name in favour of what he thinks is the cool and zeitgeist-surfing M@ moniker. He even thinks that using the words like 'moniker' and 'zeitgeist' is still cutting-edge. Poor bastard.

Since moving down to London, he's lived North (West Hampstead), South (Borough), East (Greenwich) and West (Weybridge). Friends would describe him as 'the acceptable face of evil' and, most recently, he has been likened to 'the complete guidebook for visitors to London a century ago'.

Matt also likes to blog about science. But only in London. He's obsessed.

Chris would like to tell people that he hails from London, but his American accent would betray such a flagrant lie. However, when he first moved here in 2001, he felt disconcertingly at home. Currently residing at the western front of the East End (otherwise known as Clerkenwell) Chris enjoys foraging for new lunch spots and trying to keep track of the bewildering London art scene. Learn more.

Currently residing in the East End (but avoiding turning into one of those eastenders whothink it's really cool to dress like its 1947), Talia has been part of the team here at Londonist since 2005. Heading up the music & nightlife sections of the site, she's one of those people who's handy to have on speed-dial if you're short of things to do that evening and really need a good boogie. Outside of Londonist she spends her time making radio shows, writing about music, encouraging people to dance with resident DJ slots at Popstarz and Ghetto, geeking out on the internet and interviewing popstars before committing the uber sin of asking for a photo with them. She also pretends to be ahead of the game. Check her personal blog at Karinski.net for tales of djing, Scandanavian pop and the hotness of band members who look like monsters / Billie Piper.

Though originally from Chicago, where he was born under a punk rock and raised on a steady diet of techno and vodka, one morning in 2006 Dave awoke to find himself living in Camden. "I really must stop drinking so much, waking up abroad like this!", he mused, naturally befuddled by the sudden change in scenery. As the initial confusion subsided, Dave realised he must play the cards he was dealt since his life philosophy was entirely derived from the lyrics of Kenny Rogers' 1978 classic, "The Gambler", and he was never one to be a hypocrite.

Fortunately a trendy new media company in South London had a vacancy as a back scrubber, so he was soon able to afford a modest living that included frequent fry-ups and the occasional dram of whisky (though not so much as to unwittingly land himself in yet another faraway land). Dave quickly came to love his new home so much that, one day in 2007, Londonist asked the not-so-young upstart to write for them about the weird sonic vibrations he claimed to hear buzzing inside of his head. No one really thought much was moving about up there at all, but with the imaginary always being more interesting than the supposedly real, we kept him around. He is fun to drink with, after all!

Personal blog

Duncan hails from the rugby bastion of the West Country and so it's no surprise that such a football mad lad should be lured inexorably towards the bright floodlights at the other end of the M4 where in the nineties he gave computer training courses in what is now the upstairs of the Burger King just outside Paddington Station before moving on to write for the London Football Review amongst others and then slotting into the Londonist squad as the football editor.

Duncan's favourite London football memories include watching Arsenal putting six past his native Gloucester in 1987, sharing a boardroom with Barnet's Stan Flashman and Barry Fry, getting lost in a dark and deserted Upton Park, marvelling at Ian Holloway's way with words, covering Millwall's run to the 2004 cup final and greeting Oliver Bierhoff as he sat with a towel wrapped round his power suit on a chilly night in the Stamford Bridge press box.

Duncan loves Bush Hall for music, the Canal Cafe Theatre for comedy, Beatroot on Berwick Street for lunch and is forever indebted to the mercy of Thames Barrier security guards after he'd failed to realise that their car park, although handy for The Valley, closes at half-time.

Since moving to London from the much-maligned West Midlands, Dave has lived on the Isle of Dogs and nowhere else at all. After nearly a decade in the same small flat, he’s just got around to finishing his unpacking and moving the empty boxes into the loft. He is a procrastinator.

His favourite place in the world is Central Park in New York, but that doesn’t suit a Londonist contributor’s profile very well, so let’s pretend it’s really Greenwich or somewhere like that. His least favourite place in the world is Leicester Square, or any other tourist pit.

He enjoys many normal pastimes such as drinking, sleeping and eating, as well as more unusual ones such as geekiness, pedantry and pretending to be able to skate. He sometimes dreams of a life unencumbered by delays and frustration. Dave actually grew up in one of the southernmost suburbs of London, but he doesn’t like to admit it.

Sally originally hails from Southend-on-Sea in Essex, but seems to be largely unscathed by this fact. For the last 12 years or so she has been living in Peckham, and sings its praises with all the fervour of the newly converted.

Sally thinks London's bestest bit is the South Bank: its worstest bit is anywhere near the North Circular - she comes out in a rash just thinking about it.

In between researching her second book and being a Londonista, she runs a shop and helps with her husband's import business.

Sally's hobbies include her cat, planning ambitious outings which never happen, and Body Balance (which is a sort of yoga for wimps). Her icons are Silent Bob and Modesty Blaise.

Dean hails from a small outpost due south of the River Thames, an unmapped speck of greater London famed for a bowling alley, a Sixties office block and litte else. His lifelong dream is to buy a farm in Patagonia and raise pygmy goats, but until that happens he can be found hovering around Hackney telling any poor fool in earshot about the holistic benefits of swimming in London Fields lido on a cold winter's morning.

Jo is yet another northern refugee, having grown up in the beautiful, historic city of Chester. She then buggered off to university in a cold, windswept place, and read books about Baudelaire, Freud, queer theory, lesbian weasels, post-post-postmodernism, and sadomasochistic incestuous murderesses.

After graduating, she decided that getting the hell out of the beautiful, historic city of Chester was necessary for her sanity, and has been in the big city working as an admin slave/temp scum ever since. Any/all job offers gratefully received.

She doesn't have a blog; she doesn't even have a Livejournal, although she does have stairs in her house. Her interests include TV, bitching, TV, DDR, and all things French. And TV. Jo lives on the Isle of Dogs, which some say is spookily appropriate.

Phil actually lives near Oxford, having been forced into rural life by his parents. However, now that he can drive he spends at least an evening a week sampling the capital's music delights at whatever shady venue looks good. Outside of Londonist, he's trying to get his way through a Business Management degree at Winchester, doing a dissertation, stalking a few bands around the South of England, and holding down two jobs to pay for it all. He also likes Marmite, loves Chocolate and hates Pineapple, if you're ever gift hunting for him.

Check out his blog here.

Alice moved to the lovely city of London from Canada in 2001, planning to only stay for a year. But the opportunity to be laughed at every time she says "tomato" or "pants" proved far too tempting and she's been here ever since. She works in TV, which isn't as glamorous as it sounds, but does mean she gets to call watching television "research".

After four years in North London (in Chalk Farm, Hampstead, Queens Park and then finally Tufnell Park), she braved a move south to Balham and is now a committed South Londoner. She likes London architecture, the lack of cold snowy winters and the ready availability of pubs. She dislikes the Northern Line, Marmite, and when people think she's American.

Alice has a blog where she writes about her cats and her garden amongst other things, and another where she collects the complete works of Steve Guttenberg. It's a long story.

CRAiG always had his eye on London – but unlike everyone else on here isn’t from The North. As a kid he was transfixed by a St James Park pelican busily drowning a pigeon - and has been fascinated by London ever since.

He moved here to work as an intern at Downing Street in 1999, and stayed because London feels like the ‘centre of everything’.

He mainly writes on politics, running and gay stuff, so it helps that his time is spent on the fringes of politics, doing the city’s races and podium-dancing at the best gay clubs.

Personal blog

A Connecticut native and former resident of giant panda-crazed Washington DC, Julie made her first trip to London in utero, an event she’s mythologized into a formative experience, as she’s been a committed Anglophile ever since. She may or may not have used graduate school as a ploy to plot her return.

Among her many underexploited talents is an ability to recite obscure rules of grammar, Chaucer and Snoop Dogg, which, as you might imagine, places her in high demand at parties. She’s been told that she rocks a turtleneck like no other but isn’t actually sure whether this was meant as a compliment or an insult.

Julie likes strolling the Millennium Bridge, running in Regent’s Park, and surreptitious dancing wherever and whenever the mood strikes. The only thing she could be said to find lacking in London is giant pandas.

Neil Arnold is a folklorist from Kent. He is the author of MONSTER! THE A-Z OF ZOOFORM PHENOMENA, which he describes as 'Marc Bolan meets National Geographic'. He also runs KENT BIG CAT RESEARCH, and the blogs BEASTS OF LONDON and MONSTERS OF KENT.

Neil has a fascination with swingin' '60s London, glam rock and psychedelic music, Twin Peaks, Italian football and The Banana Splits. He lives opposite a haunted castle in historic Rochester with his vampire go-go girlfriend Jemma, but spends most of his time in London, purchasing hairspray, eye-liner, and vinyl. Neil believes in monsters more than he does himself.

At the beginning of her six-month stint in London, Francine met the Londonist crew at a pub and somehow convinced them to let her start writing for them, despite her ignorance of English spelling and London geography. The longtime Californian has since hearkened back to her Canadian roots and has even relearned to say "zed" when spelling her last name.

Heading off on a trip around the world in summer 2008, Francine has been trying to get out of Zone 1 more often and has solidified her place in Londonist history by helping mastermind the Londonist Eye. She also keeps a personal blog about her travels.

Amanda is another transplanted American. She last called Brooklyn home, but now lives at Mornington Crescent, mostly so she can make jokes about getting to Mornington Crescent. A writer by trade and a photographer by way of a hobby that got out of hand, she also enjoys really loud music, really pretty music, Primrose Hill, cardigan sweaters, and tea. She is also likely to mention her website, but generally in a context of aggravation.

Chris came to London four years ago from Newbury, a town whose only remarkable feature is how distinctly unremarkable it is. Coming from a town almost void of culture, he now spends much of his life overdosing on live music, comedy, lectures, exhibitions and galleries, in a desperate attempt to make up for lost time.

By night, Chris is a stand-up comedian, working alongside many hundreds of others on the capital's live comedy circuit while running his own club. He likes writing about comedy, geek stuff, fun events, and any news which catches his news-eye. He also writes an occasional column for Londonist called "A Comedian Blogs", with musings on the London comedy circuit.

Chris loves comedy with a passion bordering on obsessive. In particular he loves things which are silly and surreal, and don't really make much sense. One day he hopes to have Harry Hill's children, despite the clear biological obstructions. He also has a lot of time for indie/goth/electro music, lefty political activism, manga, Richard Dawkins, writing, history, home-made cakes, and causing mischief.

Raised in the bleak north of England Mike slowly fought his way south and now lives in the very heart of London.

After collaborating with Michael Moorcock he wrote a novel in a weekend because someone asked him to. His arm holds a word, part of a short story tattooed into the flesh of human beings. He has helped American teenagers understand their political system and has been a bookslut and a film correspondent before settling down as a full time writer with a caffeine habit. You can read Mike's blog here.

Ken is a North Londoner exiled somewhere far too South to be comfortable, where he lives with his wife, two cats and the occasional dead mouse.

He has a bewildering array of business ideas, one or more of which may come to fruition and earn him enough money to live a life of luxury. Ken hopes one day to relocate back to a pleasant part of North London, in a self-build, eco-friendly, self-sufficient house, replete with kitchen garden, energy-efficient features, renewable energy sources and an astroturf floodlit five-a-side football pitch.

Ken ultimately dreams of running his own restaurant, serving bits of animals reared organically on his farm; the house special is most likely to be flying pig.

Alex is from Sandwich in Kent, which is probably the party centre of the Universe. He moved to East London in 1994 and has found himself slowly edging towards the Essex badlands ever since.

He has impeccable footballing credentials, evidence of which is his captaincy of the Queen Mary Old Boy’s Third XI in the 2001/02 season, when they won promotion to Division 5 (North) of the London Old Boys League. Heady stuff indeed.

Alex’s all-time London football XI would read as follows: Seaman, Anderson, Sansom, Blanchflower, Viera, Adams, Waddle, Gascoigne, Lineker, Zola, Robben and he often wonders what Clive Mendonca is up to these days. Alex is a season-ticket holder at Wasps RFC and sometimes has strange and unsettling dreams about Lawrence Dallaglio.

His favourite place in London is Piccadilly Circus.

Will was born in India to London-raised parents. He grew up in Oxford, plotting a return to the city that is rightfully his. After moving to London in the late 1990s, he has lived in Pimlico, with a brief stint in Notting Hill.

He earns his money in freelance journalism, and is also the creator of This Isn’t London, a weblog of misinformation about the capital. Will’s most unusual London memory is sharing a taxi with a female cast-member from Family Affairs, although he was too drunk to remember which one.

Born in the appropriately named Oddstock Hospital in Salisbury in the early eighties, Laura spent her formative years moving from place to place with her nomadic family. Dazzled by the bright city lights, she made her way to London under the guise of studying English Literature but promptly found a band and left university for fame, fortune and dreary office work.

Now in her eighth year of London living she fronts a rock band called She Makes War and works as a session musician, extra and freelance geek. Recent career highlights include playing bass for A-Ha on Top of the Pops, standing next to David Bowie at the end of Series 2: Episode 2 of "Extras" (the singing scene) and performing with Lil' Chris in front of 40,000 screaming Girl Guides at Wembley Arena. She writes an almost-weekly column for Londonist called "Notes from the City".

Personal blog

Image copyright Hayley Bosworth

Amity came to Britain on a one-woman mission to eradicate the Axis Of Brown Evil: Marmite, Branston Pickle and HP Sauce. Having little success in that endeavour, she settled for writing with Londonist.

Raised and educated in the same US state in which Michael Jackson and James Dean were born, she was pulled across the pond by her lives-in-Surrey-dahling-but-calls-it-London husband five years ago. She quickly integrated into British culture, though at the price of irreparable liver damage.

Amity’s hobbies include blogging, waiting for Ken Livingstone’s next gaffe, searching for a decent margarita (on the rocks, extra salt) and browsing the used book stalls on South Bank.

Personal blog

Though a thoroughbred Londoner, it may surprise you to learn that Drew actually grew up in the rolling, hobbit-filled dales of New Zealand.

Back in the Big Smoke he swims a lot, tries to channel Joe Orton, buys all his vegetables at markets and tells everyone he's almost finished his first novel.

Drew's favourite place in London is Soho Square. Except for all the pigeons. The pigeons scare the crap out of him.

Siany has lived in London for five years after coming down for University to read books and basically liked it lots more than Shropshire. Except she wishes she could have a cat.

She like these things about London: Regent's Park, the Tube, little side streets, open all hours wine bars, the Eros statue, Koko and Soho Square. Ooooh, and the markets and art galleries. She really could go on for aaaaaaaaaages...

The only things she hates are Leicester Square, the Blackwall Tunnel, and conventional punctuation. Grrrrr!!!!!!!

Ben hails from Cardiff, Wales. He was coaxed from its nurturing bosom in 2004 by the rallying call of the London School of Economics where he is studying for a degree in International Relations.

He lives in Harringay, North London. It's a hidden oasis between Finsbury Park and Wood Green that few people seem to know about, even though it’s got a Carphone Warehouse and a Superdrug. Ben's favourite things about London are the live comedy circuit, tfl's revenue protection officers and his garden. His favourite London experience was being chased by a crack addict through Wood Green's 'Shopping City'. As a fulltime student he doesn't pay a penny of council tax but gets 10% off at Pizza Hut – annoyed?

Personal blog.

Mark is a Londoner born and mostly bred. As such he believes Dr Johnson was a cretin and can prove this using an etch-a-sketch and a bag of sour grapes. He currently resides on a boat on the fringes of the smoke, under the mistaken belief that this makes him cool, sexy and interesting. Other notable facts are that he has taken phone calls from John Peel and Ian MacKaye (but not together), made a snuff video (it's on YouTube), drunkenly fallen off a bridge in Zimbabwe (it was a small bridge though), and found a £20 note on the floor of a Tooting public house (it's not there any more so don't go looking).

Mark is also a veteran of a thousand psychic wars.