NEWS & PRESS RELEASES

TITLE: Impressions of London - Book Launch DATE: January 2002 ARTICLE CONTENT: On 29 January 2002 over 100 specially invited guests attend the launch of ‘Impressions of London from the late summer 1840’ – a new publication by IK Foundation & Company. The launch was held at the Swedish Ambassador’s residence on Portland Place in London. Speakers included the Swedish Ambassador, Dr Mats Berqvist and official representatives of the author’s hometown. The book is part of the IK Foundation & Company’s investment in chronicles and accounts written by Nordic travellers – their understanding of cultures, historical matters and geography. IMPRESSIONS OF LONDON - FROM THE LATE SUMMER OF 1840, is a travel journal from a bygone era. Follow the young Swedish traveller, J P Bager, as he walks through the streets of København and Hamburg en route for London - the home of more than a million people and the greatest centre of trade in the world. The Victorian Age was in its youth and the well-oiled machinery of England's prospering industries was bringing a new era of finance and trade to the expanding empire. J P Bager's travel journal is a fascinating tale, a unique document of the day. We can almost hear the voices and see the buildings that thrilled and captivated his imagination in 1840. The trip was to inspire Bager throughout his later life as a successful businessman and Swedish Member of Parliament. Never before has this book, which is based on Bager's hand-written notes and journals, been available to an international audience. The book is illustrated with contemporary maps from the cities he visited - København, Hamburg, London, Birmingham, Manchester, Liverpool, Leeds, Hull and Malmö. By using these maps the reader can follow Bager's journey and truly enjoy Europe in the 1840s. THE AUTHOR Johan Peter Bager was born in Malmö, which was then a small city on the edge of northern Europe, on 11 July 1818. He died in his hometown on 20 August 1888. The son of a privileged family of merchants, he was sent to the Moravian United Brethren school in Kristiansfeld, Denmark, from the age of five to thirteen – an education that was to leave its mark in the form of a philosophy that was firmly fixed in the preachings of liberalism. Bager's travels through a Europe, on the threshold of dramatic change, showed him the power and opportunities of industrialism and introduced him to the vision of capitalism. Despite the enthusiasm of youth, Bager also reflected on the potential negative aspects to both the environment and mankind. On his return to Sweden he became deeply involved in local and national politics and worked hard to promote the building of a new infrastructure based on shipping and rail transport. On his earlier travels, he left a country that was vacillating between cottage industries and farming on the one hand, and industrialism on the other. From here he travelled to at Europe, more particularly England, where speed, innovation and a new approach was the order of the day. Language: English Format: 12,7 x 21,5 cm Printed pages: 160 pages Binding: Marble half-cloth binding with gold edge, headband and dust. Additional information: Illustrations include ten maps and a portrait of the author. ISBN: 1-904145-01-9 SEE ALSO: - Shop at www.ikfoundation.org (Impressions of London)