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Average Customer Rating:

A good starting point	Customer Rating:
I had heard about psychogeography but couldn't quite work out what people were talking about so this book provided a really good introduction. It looked at the literary tradition and the flaneur and the situationists, looking mostly at Paris and London (and very briefly New York) and it gave me a long list of novels, nonfiction books and films to look into.

hand in chtcheglov

Customer Rating:

i have sympathy for the positive and the negative reviews of this book, though i must say i zipped through it and liked it a lot. it is a 'pocket essential' introduction to the ideas of psychogeography. it traces psychogeography from bases in london (defoe, machen, blake, de quincey, sinclair, home, keiller) and paris (baudelaire, benjamin, debord). It introduces the ideas and although there is much left out [i personally think frank o'hara is the psychogeographer of new york] and although it is very london-paris-centric it does raise questions and gives interesting facts. Not bad at all, but I'm waiting on a really really great intro to psychogeography. oh and i agree with the reviewer who said merlin requires a better editor and proof reader. i went looking for chtcheglov's name spelled chtchelgov, since that is how it is spelled at one time in the book, and at others it is spelled correctly. i mean: is it not a difficult enough name as it is???

Great introduction	Customer Rating:
I enjoyed this book a lot , being a an avid fan of Iain Sinclair's books 'Lights Out For The Territories' and ' The Edge of The Orison . It does get a bit academic in the chapter about Guy Debord , but otherwise a great introduction to psychogeography. Hopefully this book may encourage readers to seek out books by Sinclair , Ackroyd and others mentioned also!!

Disappointing and narrow

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I bought this on the strength of the other reviews and wish now I hadn't wasted my money. The book is badly produced (you need a better editor, proof reader, and setter, Mr C), is extremely narrow in its scope, and concentrates only on those aspects of the subject that are already well known. As a subject, psychogeography predates civilization (pagan peoples knew how geography was integral to psychology). The concentration on recent urban p-g, and the insistence that only London and Paris really count (despite a nod to New York) ignores the long rural tradition as well as p-g in other urban settings around the world. The author's knowledge and understanding of Alfred Watkins' work and its impact is poor. Which leads one to wonder just how well he really knows the rest of the subject. His attempt to assert that Ackroyd is outside the tradition as he somehow conservative rather misses the point that urba p-g as a whole is both conservative and somewhat obsessed with the notion of a golden age. Where the book does have a strength is in pointing out that for some people p-g is a method to some other end rather than an end in itself. Attempts to turn it into a science have so far met with failure simply because the amount of data required to make any form of realistic assessment are simply overwhelming. As an artistic method (particularly in literature and film) it is highly sucessful as it seems that an artistic sensibility and sensitivity are required to process and interpret a landscape and the figures that move within it. There are better books on the subject. But anyone wanting to know what p-gis would be far better off seeking out p-g artists and writers.

Psychogeography by Merlin Coverley	Customer Rating:
A great introduction to psychogeography from Defoe and De Quincey via Debord and the Situationists and on to the present day. Lively, fluent and well researched, this book takes you on a fascinating journey through London, Paris and the literature that these cities have inspired. Highly Recommended.