Roy Reed

The most comprehensive account of ghost signs ever published, focusing on London's hand-painted relics of advertising past. Ghost signs are fascinating pieces of urban archaeology. Imposing yet hidden in plain sight, these faded advertisements are London's history written onto the contemporary cityscape. The book showcases around 250 of London's most impressive and historically significant ghost signs, geo-located, accompanied by archival and other contextual images. Introductory chapters include essays on how they were produced and their restoration and conservation. Signs are then featured in themed chapters that include building, entertaining, branding and, ultimately, burying the city.

This witty, wide-ranging memoir from Roy Reed—a native Arkansan who became a reporter for the New York Times—begins with tales of the writer’s formative years growing up in Arkansas and the start of his career at the legendary Arkansas Gazette. Reed joined the New York Times in 1965 and was quickly thrust into the chaos of the Selma, Alabama, protest movement and the historical interracial march to Montgomery. His story then moves from days of racial violence to the political combat of Washington. Reed covered the Johnson White House and the early days of the Nixon administration as it wrestled with the competing demands of black voters and southern resistance to a new world. The memoir concludes with engaging postings from New Orleans and London and other travels of a reporter always on the lookout for new people, old ways, good company, and fresh outrages.