One Day in the City

Iain Sinclair is a writer, filmmaker and ‘psychogeographer’ whose work and documentation of the borough of Hackney is unrivalled.

Born in Cardiff in 1943, Iain moved to London in the 1960s after studying at Trinity College, Dublin, where he studied film.

After starting his own small press at the beginning of the 1970s, Iain began to publish his own works of poetry and made a living by selling them to small independent bookshops dotted around the Capital.

In the 1980s, inspired by the success of author Peter Ackroyd’s book ‘Hawksmoor’ for which he had conducted research, Iain chose to try his luck with publishers as his literary ambitions grew.

Books such as Downriver, Radon Daughters and Liquid City followed in the 1990s, but it wasn’t until 2002 with the publication of London Orbital that Iain’s devastatingly cutting and witty writing style was recognised on a larger scale.

His journey around the Greater London parameters documented the change of focus from the centre of the capital to the outskirts, where gated communities and ever-changing landscapes were beginning to accommodate London’s expanding population.

As a ‘psychogeographer’, his urge to dig ever deeper into the psyche of the capital and Hackney, the place he still calls home, remains undiminished.