London: The Biography

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It is also the first in a sequence of novels of London, through which he traces the changing, but curiously consistent nature of the city. The Peter Ackroyd CBE is an English novelist and biographer with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. Ackroyd worked at The Spectator magazine between 1973 and 1977 and became joint managing editor in 1978. If there is a hero among the throngs, it may be engineer Joseph Bazalgette, who in 1855 began building 1,265 miles of sewers to contain the Stygian odor of progress and keep the huge, ugly metropolis livable. The unclipped dust jacket is in very good condition with nibbling to the top and bottom edges of the spine and the top edge of the back cover.

London Biography by Peter Ackroyd - AbeBooks London Biography by Peter Ackroyd - AbeBooks

Peter Ackroyd's mother worked in the personnel department of an engineering firm, his father having left the family home when Ackroyd was a baby. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. This compact but detailed biography illuminates the literary career of Wilkie Collins (1824–1889), whose “sensation stories” made him one of the Victorian era’s most popular authors.For him it is a living organism, with its own laws of growth and change, so London is a biography rather than a history. The reader segues through this litany of lists and anthology of anecdotes via the sketchiest of topical linkages, but no matter—not a page is dull, until brief closing chapters in which Ackroyd succumbs to bathos, for which he's instantaneously redeemed by the preceding chapters.

LONDON: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd - Publishers Weekly LONDON: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd - Publishers Weekly

Much of Peter Ackroyd's work has been concerned with the life and past of London but here, as a culmination, is his definitive account of the city.

And not just any human body either, but "envisaged in the form of a young man with his arms outstretched in a gesture of liberation. Forecast: Published to acclaim in England, this is virtually guaranteed major review coverage here, and the publisher will also shoot for national media. His fascination with London literary and artistic figures is also displayed in the sequence of biographies he has produced of Ezra Pound (1980), T. More Hamburger icon An icon used to represent a menu that can be toggled by interacting with this icon.

Peter Ackroyd (Author of London) - Goodreads Peter Ackroyd (Author of London) - Goodreads

Novelist and biographer Ackroyd (The Canterbury Tales) provides a history of and meditation on the actual and imaginary Venice in a volume as opulent and paradoxical as the city itself. Published to rave reviews in England, Ackroyd's moving and luminous biography of William Blake (1757-1827) serves as an ideal point of entry into the poet and artist's visionary world. In near fine condition, the binding is straight and tight, the boards clean and the lettering on the spine bright.Benedict's, Ealing and at Clare College, Cambridge, from which he graduated with a double first in English. Ackroyd's literary career began with poetry, including such works as London Lickpenny (1973) and The Diversions of Purley (1987). Ackroyd covers unrest and peace, fires and ruins, river and rail transport, crime and punishment, wealth and poverty, markets and churches, uncontrolled growth and barely controlled filth. Nothing can quite match the huge strange echo chamber of life-stories, folktales, and urban myths conjured up in Peter Ackroyd's epic vision of his native city.

London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd - Penguin Random House Canada London: The Biography by Peter Ackroyd - Penguin Random House

Though London's chapters vary meaning that it can be dipped into at random, Ackroyd is employing a skilful and continuous theme throughout, which constantly links past and present--the similarities of children's games in Lambeth in 1910 and 1999; the obsession with time--"in 21st-century London time rushes forward and is everywhere apparent", while in 18th-century London the church clock of Newgate "regulated the times of hanging. This novel deals with one of Ackroyd's great heroes, Charles Dickens, and is a reworking of Little Dorrit.Splendid account enlivened by the author's infectious belief in the close relationship between past and present. From 2003 to 2005, Ackroyd wrote a six-book non-fiction series ( Voyages Through Time), intended for readers as young as eight. Ackroyd examines London from its pre-history through today, artfully selecting, organizing and pacing stories, and rendering the past in witty and imaginative ways. Web icon An illustration of a computer application window Wayback Machine Texts icon An illustration of an open book.