Isn’t London Hell?
lrb.co.uk
lrb.co.uk
I've read it all because he is such a master of language and even if I tire of the plot I drink up his prose. He is one of my favorites.
Anyway, enough of the terrible literary criticism. Far more important is this line from Waugh's wiki page:
> The twin blows were sufficient for him to consider suicide. He records that he went down to a nearby beach and, leaving a note with his clothes, walked out to sea. An attack by jellyfish changed his mind, and he returned quickly to the shore
I feel that 'He records that' is a polite way to say "this is obvious nonsense". I mean, sure it's possible that Waugh decided not to commit suicide due to jellyfish, but it certainly seems suspiciously like something that a character in his novels would do ...
Tempting as it may be, to read the headline and wade in to add you point of anecdata from the time you spent in London, and found it terrible/ wonderful, i really urge you to click the link.
Spoiler: its about the release of 5 books by Evelyn Waugh, not about the pro's and cons of a city that you may love, or hate.
Barring some of the super-top-tier jobs, your salary will realistically cap out at maybe £100-150k as the absolute best of the best at which point you're technically really rich on paper but still not like "can actually afford to buy a really nice house and have two kids in a really nice area" rich.
For all the talk about "bigger salaries" and "career progression", I'm genuinely not convinced that those who join the London rat race are actually truly better off than someone in Leeds. Sure you can hit upwards of 80k after like five, but that completely ignores that you need to be earning like £60k to have a half-decent standard of living to begin with.
> From that moment,’ Auberon Waugh recalled, ‘I never treated anything he had to say on faith or morals very seriously.’
If the person telling you smoking is unhealthy is a smoker, then it's obviously a lie and you should enjoy the healthy smoking habit whenever possible.
But I look forward to HN comments about how and why London is or is not hell. Those are likely to be both interesting and informative. ;-)
That's only the subway; a better comparison would include at least parts of the RER network, which covers 360 miles; let's say half of that in a range comparable to London subway. And London is much more spread out than Paris, so comparing mileage is not a very interesting metric. Subway station density is another one where London “loses”.
Personally, I found London subway OK, with stations a bit too far away for my taste. The bus network however is better than in Paris, especially their frequency of passage.
And the museums, theatres, cinemas, galleries, pubs, clubs, restaurants, markets, festivals, parks etc.
But if you don't use any of those then London is just a noisy, dirty, expensive hell - you might as well live in the suburbs somewhere
I assume that is specifically within UK? And not job market in the EU or Global Scale?
3 Brits
2 Americans
1 each of Ukrainian, Irish, and French.
The head of the department is also French.
Moved to Barcelona and the difference is night and day.
i.e. it takes 40m to get anywhere... But there's an incredible variety of things & places to which you can get in 40m!
Night and day difference living out there on the edge than living closer in within one of the neighborhoods having restaurants, cafes and local pubs on your doorstep and being able to walk to work.
Both are conurbations (of differing size) where you can find yourself wandering various little town centres each with their own unique vibe. It just happens that London is bigger.