Table Hopping

The Secret History of London Restaurants, from Langan's Brasserie to The Wolseley

Published by Pegasus Books
Distributed by Simon & Schuster
LIST PRICE $29.95

About The Book

The colorful history of London's food scene as told by acclaimed GQ editor, restaurant insider, and New York Times bestselling author Dylan Jones.

In October 1976, the London restaurant world was turned upside down when Michael Caine, celebrated chef Richard Shepherd, and entrepreneur Peter Langan opened Langan’s Brasserie, a celebrity hangout that would revolutionize the capital’s dining scene. This soon became the most celebrated restaurant in the city and helped turn London into an internationally recognised culinary hot spot.

London never looked back.

In the five decades since, the city has become a global culinary capital—a multi-cultural hotbed of super chefs and gastronomic ingenuity, monstrous egos and appalling kitchen behavior, controversial reviews and scabrous critics, as well as dictatorial maître ds, inter-restaurant feuding, ridiculous trends, scandals, tricky customers, financial shenanigans, global media attention, and much more.

The restaurant scene in London over the last fifty years has been one of the country’s most successful examples of Britain’s soft power. During that time the city has become the center of the culinary world, eclipsing Paris, New York, and all points in between.

Excerpt

"The Beatles said they didn’t want chopped parsley on their ice cream." —Prue Leith

"Even at the time I didn’t think I was good enough, even with people blowing smoke up my arse." —Marco Pierre White

"At The Groucho I would have been high on cocaine, and I would have needed an audience." —Robbie Williams

"People thought Boiling Point was full on, but holy f***, if they had been filming at Harveys we’d all be in prison." —Gordon Ramsey

"I hated the Conran desk bots in Quaglino’s who stared at you and looked down their noses at you and were always wearing a better suit than you were." —Fay Maschler

"The only place I’ve ever been banned from is Langan’s." —Fay Maschler

"The Ivy was unquestionably the restaurant of the nineties." —Jeremy King

"Richard Caring is not a restauranteur." —Jeremy King

"A famous photographer, came up to me and said, You are so fucking ugly." —Margot Henderson

"I had sex in so many restaurants. Upstairs at Langan’s, Quaglino’s, the Atlantic, everywhere." —Fat Tony

"I was obsessed with Adrian Gill. I sort of hated him." —Giles Coren

"I look back and think, Jesus, how the hell did I do it?" —Heston Blumenthal

"One night a week they would bring their mistresses and go straight upstairs." —Giorgio Locatelli

"I think Marco’s a genius." —Angela Hartnett

"London is certainly better than New York and is the centre of the restaurant world." —Tom Parker Bowles

About The Author

New York Times bestselling author Dylan Jones has written or edited over thirty books. In the eighties, he was one of the first editors of i-D, before becoming editor of Arena. He spent the next decade working in newspapers before embarking on a multi-award-winning tenure at GQ. During his editorship, Conde Nast’s flagship title won more awards than any other magazine. He has been chairman of the Hay Festival, chairman of the British Fashion Council, and chairman of Fashion Rocks. He’s a BBC TV producer, a partner in Beacon Films, and an advisor for Hay Festival Global. From 2023 to 2025, he was editor-in-chief of the Evening Standard. In 2012, he was awarded an OBE for services to publishing. He’s eaten in a lot of restaurants.

Product Details

  • Publisher: Pegasus Books (November 3, 2026)
  • Length: 352 pages
  • ISBN13: 9798897102327

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Raves and Reviews

Praise for Dylan Jones’s David Bowie: A Life

“Revelatory and surprising—perfect for the Ziggy completist.”

New York Magazine

“Jones’s Bowie opus serves as the ultimate oral history of the artist’s life and musical journey.” - Billboard

“Beguiling. The fabulosity of Bowie’s life and times lends itself extraordinarily well to the oral history form."

San Francisco Chronicle

“Drawn from over 180 interviews with friends, rivals, lovers and collaborators, some of whom have never before spoken about their relationship with Bowie, this oral history weaves a hypnotic spell as it unfolds the story of a remarkable rise to stardom and an unparalleled artistic path.” - Parade

“There have been many books about David Bowie, both before and after his death, but GQ editor Dylan Jones’s is among the best, as well as the most revelatory. For any admirer of the great man, there is a smorgasbord of new information, mixed with well-judged analysis. But even for agnostics, there is no denying Jones’s flair and dedication in giving his hero the most comprehensive of eulogies.”

The Guardian

“Devour David Bowie: A Life, an oral history by Dylan Jones. It’s full of irresistible stories of art, music, and, of course, sex—this is rock’n’roll, after all.” - Men's Health

“Dylan Jones has excavated the cacophony of voices that make up a life and curated a phenomenal portrait of the artist from childhood to the final days. The witnesses who comprise this oral biography animate the pages like characters in a non-fiction novel. Damn nigh peerless.”

David Mitchell, New York Times bestselling author of Cloud Atlas

“A labor of love with many vivid voices and fresh insights.” - Jon Savage, author of England’s Dreaming and Teenage

“What a story—no screenwriter could have made it up. Dylan Jones tells the epic tale of how David Bowie turned the world upside down, from his early scuffling London days to his rock-and-roll golden years—a starman who kept reimagining himself and his art in ways that transformed our whole culture.”

Rob Sheffiels, author of Love Is a Mix Tape and On Bowie

“A must-read, incredibly diverse and detailed oral history of the rock god's entire existence. From the cradle to the grave. Best. Bowie book. Ever.” - Denis Leary, author of Why We Don’t Suck

“Dylan Jones elevates the art of oral biography to a cinematic level. Scene by scene, this is the movie of David Bowie's life.”

Robert Greenfield, author of S.T.P: A Journey Through America with the Rolling Stones

“Capturing the kaleidoscopic range of David Bowie's life and work seems like an impossible task. But through more than 150 interviews spanning the entirety of Bowie's extraordinary time on Earth, Dylan Jones thoroughly and seamlessly conveys the creativity, curiosity, and velocity of a visionary who transformed the very possibilities of pop music.”

Alan Light, author of The Holy and the Broken and Let's Go Crazy

“One can never have enough books on David Bowie. [Jones] offers his own thoughtful and insightful commentary throughout, along with fascinating observations from the interviewees. The closing pages—with Bowie working on both his off-Broadway musical, Lazarus, and his last recording, Blackstar, even as he knows he is dying from liver cancer—are especially poignant. A singular addition to the Bowie bookshelf.”

Booklist (starred)

“Comprehensive. Jones delves deeply into the details of rock icon David Bowie’s fame, financial problems, drug use, sexuality, Buddhist practices, and romantic entanglements. All these facets of Bowie’s personality and more are on display [and] Jones incorporates honest, even biting, observations [that] contribute to the well-roundedness of this remarkable volume.”

Publishers Weekly

“A sweeping, gossipy biography of the chameleonic pop star in the form of an oral history, with input from dozens of collaborators, lovers, and admirers. Bowie himself weighs in, too. Jones captures his subject’s transformations and the responses they provoked.”

Kirkus Reviews

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