Ravens in the Tower, Gog and Magog, London Stone, the Lord Mayor's Show, the sound of Bow Bells...all are dispatched within the opening chapter of this 400 page compendium of London folklore. Hold on to your maypole for a breathtaking ride through the centuries, with tales of spooks and wraiths, festivals and fairs, origins of place names and long-forgotten traditions from all corners of the capital. Steve Roud recently retired as a Croydon local......

Of all the problems Heathrow's colicky baby T5 has been having in its first few months, we've mostly heard about masses of lost baggage and inconveniently cancelled flights. But now there's a whole new reason to be alarmed, or at least freshly disappointed, at the terminal's inefficiency -- security errors due to the the Fiver's confusing layout have allowed international travelers into the UK without any immigration or customs control by sending them to domestic......