ABSTRACT
How precarious lives can seem within the material culture of urban spaces is partly shown through the speed with which ‘events’ can impact on the feelings people can have for everyday life and the different kinds of narratives they prepare for themselves. Writing in the immediate wake of the bombings in London, Ian McEwan remembers that
The mood of a city has never swung so sharply. On Wednesday there was no better place on earth. After the victory in Singapore, Londoners were celebrating the prospect of an explosion of new energy and creativity. . . . The echoes of rock ‘n’ roll in Hyde Park and its wave of warm and fundamentally decent emotions were only just fading.
