Beatrice Harraden (1864–1936) was a British writer and suffragette. In An Idyll of London she describes the poignant friendship between two lonely individuals, both of them artists. One is an old man approaching the end of a miserable life, where he has nursed resentment and bitterness towards all around him. The other is a young woman who has already faced many hardships, but retains great optimism and shows kindness to all around them.
Their tenuous friendship deepens on the day described in the story, and they take a walk together from the National Gallery, across Trafalgar Square and into Westminster Abbey. But their real journey is through the memories, trials and tribulations of their own lives, and each of them is bound for a different destination.
A masterpiece of characterisation and subtle pathos.
