Do Not Pass Go

In this entertaining and irreverent guide, comedy writer Tim Moore takes a zany trip around the Monopoly board - or rather the 28 stations, utilities and streets of London that form the setting for the world's most popular game. Himself a Londoner, Moore visits landmarks from Angel to Liverpool St, telling us about their history and how they have changed since Monopoly first went on sale in 1936. For those players who have wondered at the oddball collection of choices that appear on the Monopoly board, Moore has the answer. The game originated in the US, but its UK maker was based in Leeds. So the employee responsible for the redesigning of the board set off with a notebook, pen and secretary, and on a whistlestop tour of the capital he picked out streets and other landmarks at random. Moore's experiences as he travels through the city range from the educational to the ludicrous. He stays in hotels on the Old Kent Road and Mayfair, visits Pentonville Prison (where he has a strange experience involving Dr Crippen), searches for a bit of Free Parking which is a tad more difficult to find now than it was in 1936, and contemplates how a grotty cul-de-sac named Vine Street gained immortality on the Monopoly board. Among the more hilarious touches are Moore winding up at the wrong end of a Waterworks pipe, disclosing how Pall Mall got its name and naming three addresses that you won't find in any A-Z of London. This is an absorbing, comic and enlightening book that guarantees plenty for our Monopoly money. (Kirkus UK)