Editing Islington (section)

==In culture==
{{more citations needed|section|date=September 2023}}
Islington features extensively in modern English literature and culture:

===Books===
* Islington locations appear in many novels and other writings by [[Charles Dickens]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Islington Local History Centre |title=A Twist in the Tale: Charles Dickens and Islington |url=https://www.islington.gov.uk/~/media/sharepoint-lists/public-records/leisureandculture/information/factsheets/20192020/20190624charlesdickensandislington.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211103111039/https://www.islington.gov.uk/~/media/sharepoint-lists/public-records/leisureandculture/information/factsheets/20192020/20190624charlesdickensandislington.pdf |archive-date=2021-11-03 |url-status=live |website=Charles Dickens Exhibition 2012 |publisher=London Borough of Islington |access-date=3 November 2021}}</ref> including:
** ''[[Oliver Twist]]'' (1837–1839):  [[Mr Brownlow]]'s house is in [[Pentonville]], and several scenes take place in and around Islington.
**The [[Christmas]] story ''The Lamplighter'' (1838) is partially set in Canonbury, near [[Canonbury House and Canonbury Tower|Canonbury Tower]].
** ''[[Martin Chuzzlewit]]'' (1844): Tom Pinch and his sister, Ruth, take lodgings in Islington.
**''[[David Copperfield]]'' (1849–50): [[Wilkins Micawber]] lives in [[City Road]] early in the novel.
** ''[[Bleak House]] ''(1852–53): William Guppy, a law clerk, lives in [[Pentonville]].
** ''[[Our Mutual Friend]]'' (1864–65): the Wilfers live in [[Holloway, London|Holloway]].
* In ''[[The Way We Live Now]]'' (1875) by [[Anthony Trollope]], the glamorous widow, Mrs Hurtle, has lodgings in Islington. In the same book the upper class cad Sir Felix visits a music hall on the [[City Road]] with Ruby, who vainly hopes to marry him.
*In ''[[The Diary of a Nobody]]'' (first serialized in ''Punch'' magazine in 1888–89 and first printed in book form, in 1892), an English comic novel written by George Grossmith and his brother Weedon Grossmith, the main character lives off the Holloway Road in Brickfield Terrace.
* Upper Street and other Islington locations appear throughout [[George Gissing]]'s ''[[The Nether World]]'' (1889).
* In ''[[Sinister Street]]'' (1914), by [[Compton MacKenzie]], Michael Fane, the main protagonist, undertakes teenage rebellion by leaving boring, respectable, upper-middle class [[South Kensington]] for a couple of visits to the exciting, louche, working class [[Holloway, London|Holloway]] district of Islington.
* Islington is referred to in the [[M. R. James]] short ghost story "[[Two Doctors]]" published in ''[[A Thin Ghost and Others]]'' in 1919.
* The [[Royal Agricultural Hall]] on [[Liverpool Road]] features as the location for a Victorian walking match in [[Peter Lovesey]]'s novel  ''[[Wobble to Death]]'',<ref>{{cite book |last1=Lovesey |first1=Peter |author-link=Peter Lovesey |title=Wobble to Death |date=1970 |publisher=Macmillan |location=London |isbn=0-333-11069-2}}</ref> (1970) and its [[BBC Radio]]'s [[Saturday Night Theatre]] adaptation.
*[[Simon Gray]]'s play ''[[Otherwise Engaged]]'' (1975) is set in Islington.
*[[Douglas Adams]] lived in Arlington Avenue. The phone number of his house was 226 7709. In ''[[The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy]]'' when Arthur Dent and Ford Prefect are rescued in ZZ9 Plural Z Alpha, the probability of that happening was 2 to the power of 267,709 to one against. Douglas also used Islington as a setting in his novels, and named a character in his famous ''Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy'' (1978) series, [[Hotblack Desiato]], after a well-known local estate agent. Islington was also the place in which Arthur Dent meets Trillian during a party in a flat.
*[[Martha Grimes]]'s fictional detective, [[Richard Jury]], lives in a flat in Islington. He first appeared in the novel ''The Man With a Load of Mischief'' (1981).
*In [[Douglas Adams]]'s ''[[Dirk Gently]]'' series commencing with ''[[Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency]]'' (1987), Richard MacDuff's flat, and Susan Way's flat are all in Islington (though Dirk's office is on a fictional street).
*In [[Neil Gaiman]]'s best-selling novel ''[[Neverwhere (novel)|Neverwhere]]'' (1996), Islington is a fallen angel that lives under London, named after the Angel tube station.
*[[Nick Hornby]]'s novels ''[[About a Boy (novel)|About a Boy]]'' (1998) and ''[[Slam (novel)|Slam]]'' (2007) are set in Islington.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.gaystarnews.com/article/in-the-spotlight-the-london-borough-of-islington/|title=In the spotlight: the London Borough of Islington|date=2015-07-07|work=Gay Star News|access-date=2017-05-22|language=en-GB|archive-date=3 December 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181203112536/https://www.gaystarnews.com/article/in-the-spotlight-the-london-borough-of-islington/|url-status=dead}}</ref>
*[[Zoë Heller]]'s novel ''[[Notes on a Scandal]]'' (2003) is set in Islington.
*In the ''[[Harry Potter]]'' series by [[JK Rowling]], commencing with ''[[Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix]]'' (2003), the eponymous [[Order of the Phoenix (fictional organisation)|Order]] is headquartered at Number 12 Grimmauld Place, a fictitious street in Islington. The house belonged to [[Sirius Black]] and Harry, Ron, and Hermione used it as a hideout in ''[[Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows]]''.
*Islington features throughout [[Charlie Higson]]'s post-apocalyptic, young adult horror series, The Enemy, set in and around London. For example, in ''[[The Dead (Higson novel)|The Dead]]'' (2010), Islington is the destination of the group travelling on Greg's bus. Greg tells everyone but his son, Liam: "Get some sleep. We'll push on in the morning. I'll take you all as far as Islington. After that you're on your own."<ref>{{cite book |author=Higson, Charlie |title=The Dead |date=2010 |page=6 of 6, Chapter 25}}</ref>
*The Gaspard the Fox series of children's books, commencing in 2018, are set in Islington, inspired by the remarkable relationship between an urban fox and local author [[Zeb Soanes]], who lives in [[Canonbury]]. [[James Mayhew]]'s illustrations feature numerous local landmarks, including the [[Islington Green War Memorial]], [[De Beauvoir Town|De Beauvoir Square]] and the [[Regent's Canal]].

===Music===
*In [[Arthur Sullivan]] and [[B. C. Stephenson]]'s comic opera, ''[[The Zoo]]'' (1875), two of the main characters are the Duke of Islington and his beloved, whom he asks to become the Duchess of Islington.
*In 2008, [[Sparks (band)|Sparks]] played their first 20 albums [[Sparks (band)#2000s|in 20 nights]] at the [[O2 Academy Islington]] to promote ''[[Exotic Creatures of the Deep]]''. They marked the occasion with an exclusive release of the humorous song "Islington N1", in which sophisticated locals complain that the band's presence cheapens their neighbourhood (where "Everyone has all they need/Every dog is pedigreed").<ref>{{Citation |title=Sparks - Islington N1 |date=2008 |url=https://www.discogs.com/release/6520670-Sparks-Islington-N1#:~:text=May%20and%20June%202008%20saw%20the%2021-night%20Sparks,on%2013%20June%202008%20at%20Shepherds%20Bush%20Empire. |access-date=2024-12-16 |language=en}}</ref>

===Film===
* In the 1979 film ''[[Scum (film)|Scum]]'', Donald Woods (played by John Fowler), inmate 3310, is revealed to live in Islington, on Almeida Street. Woods receives a letter from his parents concerning his dog, which recently had puppies. As Woods cannot read, he hires fellow inmate Ben Archer, played by Mick Ford, inmate number 4721, to read the entire letter to him aloud, including the Islington mailing address.{{Citation needed|date=September 2023}}