Peter Ackroyd Books

Having received a cryptic message ten years after her father's sudden disappearance, a young woman asks Sherlock Holmes to solve the mystery

SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY PATTI SMITHWilliam Blake is one of Britain s most fascinating writers, who, as well as being a groundbreaking poet, is also well known as a painter, engraver, radical and mystic. Although Blake was dismissed as an eccentric by

From athletes to academics, warriors to war horses - enter the realm of Ancient Greece. The cradle of Western civiliation, Greece was a land of innovation and supreme power. Statesmen, architects and heroes - uncover the secrets of this formidable land, if you dare... Peter Ackroyd brilliantly brings to life the wonder of the Ancient Greeks- it's history, but not as you know it!

"This revised Norton Critical Edition, like its predecessor, is the only edition available that includes both the 1890 Lippincott's and the 1891 book version of The Picture of Dorian Gray. Under the editorial guidance of Wilde scholar Michael Patrick Gillespie, students have the opportunity to read comparatively both published versions of this controversial novel." ""Backgrounds" and "Reviews and Reactions" allow readers to gauge The Picture of Dorian Gray's sensational reception when the 1890 version appeared and to consider the heated public debate over art and morality that followed its publication. Joris-Karl Huysmans, Walter Pater, and Oscar Wilde offer a sense of the diverse opinions on these topics. Eight contemporary reviews and comments on the novel are reprinted, among them four opinions from the St. James's Gazette immediately after publication in 1890, each followed by Oscar Wilde's vehement reply." ""Criticism" includes seven new essays on the novel that reflect key changes in interpretive theory in recent years and reveal the broad range of perspectives associated with Wilde and The Picture of Dorian Gray. Simon Joyce, Donald L. Lawler, Sheldon W. Liebman, Maureen O'Connor, Ellie Ragland-Sullivan, John Paul Riquelme, and Michael Patrick Gillespie provide their varied assessments. A Chronology and a Selected Bibliography are also included."--BOOK JACKET.

Dickens's first novel - with its creative use of the old tradition of graphic satire - is an episodic series of adventures featuring the noble Mr Pickwick and a range of characters such as Jingle, Sam Weller and various other members of the Pickwick Club.

A visual interpretation of the nineteenth century London of Dickens' time.

A Christmas Carol 'Bah! Humbug!' Mr Scrooge is a squeezing, wrenching, grasping, scraping, clutching, miserable old man. Nobody stops him in the street to say a cheery hello; nobody would dare ask him for a favour. And I hope you'd never be so foolish as to wish him a 'Merry Christmas'! Scrooge doesn't believe in Christmas, charity, kindness - or ghosts. But one cold Christmas Eve, Scrooge receives some unusual visitors who show him just how very mistaken he's been... The Chimes The second of his series of Christmas books, Charles Dickens wrote The Chimes one year after A Christmas Carol. Tackling familiar themes of redemption, social injustice and family, it is a story of hope and contemplation and is a moving festive read well worth discovering.

The sixth and final volume in Peter Ackroyd's magnificent History of England series, taking us from the Boer War to the Millennium Dome almost a hundred years later.

In Colours of London Peter Ackroyd tells the history of London through the lens of colour - with specially commissioned colorised photographs from Dynamichrome that bring a lost London back to life.

Orphaned Oliver lives in a cold, grim workhouse, until the day he dares to ask for more. Escaping to London, Oliver finds new friends and thinks he has a home at last. But his troubles are only just beginning.

Revolution, the fourth volume of Peter Ackroyd's enthralling History of England begins in 1688 with a revolution and ends in 1815 with a famous victory. In it, Ackroyd takes readers from William of Orange's accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was - again - at war with France, a war that would end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo.Late Stuart and Georgian England marked the creation of the great pillars of the English state. The Bank of England was founded, as was the stock exchange, the Church of England was fully established as the guardian of the spiritual life of the nation and parliament became the sovereign body of the nation with responsibilities and duties far beyond those of the monarch. It was a revolutionary era in English letters, too, a time in which newspapers first flourished and the English novel was born. It was an era in which coffee houses and playhouses boomed, gin flowed freely and in which shops, as we know them today, began to proliferate in our towns and villages. But it was also a time of extraordinary and unprecedented technological innovation, which saw England utterly and irrevocably transformed from a country of blue skies and farmland to one of soot and steel and coal.

"Peter Ackroyd discloses the true nature of Blake's life and art. He traces his progression from early childhood in a Dissenting household, through his apprenticeship as an engraver and his studies at the newly formed Royal Academy Schools, to his full maturity when he produced the masterpieces upon which his reputation rests - works such as Jerusalem, Milton and Songs of Innocence and of Experience, works that were as neglected during his lifetime as they are celebrated today."--BOOK JACKET. "But we also see Blake in the context of his period; we see him caught up in the Gordon Riots, excited by the French Revolution, being tried for sedition during the Napoleonic wars, attracted to various forms of spiritual radicalism and sexual magic."--BOOK JACKET. "This is the first biography to reveal the true affinities between Blake's art and his poetry; in the magnificent biographical narrative we see Blake as a Cockney visionary and a London tradesman, as a prophet and an artisan."--Jacket

Includes: A Christmas Carol and The Chimes

Lavish, large format picture book about London, with Peter Ackroyd's inimitable text (taken from London: A Biography), new pictures and new captions. Divided into four parts: 1) In the beginning Roman and Medieval London, ending with the Black Death; 2) Red Contrasts the Great Fire of 1666 with the Blitz of 1944, and tells the story of both in gripping narrative; 3) Motley Theatrical London, including street fairs, street theatre, London as mob and crowd etc; 4) Black The industrial revolution, the London poor and homeless, London as centre of empire (including emigration), London prisons, huge expansion of the metropolis (including the London suburbs).

Heralded as a genius, the forerunner of modern fantasy and credited with the invention of the psychological drama, science fiction and the detective story , Edgar Allan Poe had a life as dramatic and tragic as his art.

Offers a biography of Shakespeare, this book reads like the work of a contemporary meeting Shakespeare. It is a depiction of the world Shakespeare inhabited.

Describes London from the time of the Druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century, noting magnificence in both epochs. This title includes chapters on the history of silence and the history of light, the history of childhood and the history of suicide, the history of Cockney speech and the history of drink.

Focusing on the life and imagination of Thomas More, this biography explores the multifaceted legacy of a prominent statesman and author. Known for his groundbreaking work "Utopia," More shaped a literary genre and perspective on society. His journey also reflects his commitment to his faith, culminating in his recognition as a Catholic martyr and saint. Ackroyd's reconstruction delves into More's remarkable contributions to history and literature, offering insights into his enduring influence.

"London: The Biography is the pinnacle of Peter Ackroyd's brilliant obsession with the eponymous city. In this work, Ackroyd brings the reader through time into the city whose institutions and idiosyncrasies have permeated much of his works of fiction and nonfiction.". "Peter Ackroyd sees London as a living, breathing organism, with its own laws of growth and change. Reveling in the city's riches as well as its raucousness, the author traces thematically its growth from the time of the Druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century.". "Anecdotal, insightful, and wonderfully entertaining, London is animated by Ackroyd's concern for the close relationship between the present and the past, as well as by what he describes as the peculiar "echoic" quality of London, whereby its texture and history actively affect the lives and personalities of its citizens."--BOOK JACKET.

In Chaucer's most ambitious poem, 'The Canterbury Tales' a group of pilgrims assemble in an inn just outside London and agree to entertain each other on the way to Canterbury by telling stories. The pilgrims come from all ranks of society, from the crusading Knight and burly Miller to the worldly Monk and lusty Wife of Bath.

The second volume of Peter Ackroyd's masterful history of England: the Tudors

Having written enthralling biographies of London and of its great river, the Thames, Peter Ackroyd now turns to England itself. This first volume of six takes us from the time that England was first settled, more than 15,000 years ago, to the death in 1509 of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII. In it, Ackroyd takes us from Neolithic England, which we can only see in the most tantalising glimpses - a stirrup found in a grave, some seeds at the bottom of a bowl - to the long period of Roman rule; from the Dark Ages when England was invaded by a ceaseless tide of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, to the twin glories of medieval England - its great churches and monasteries and its common law. With his extraordinary skill for evoking time and place, he tells the familiar story of king succeeding king in rich prose, with profound insight and some surprising details. The food we ate, the clothes we wore, the punishments we endured, even the jokes we told are all found here, too.

In a fictionalized autobiography, the controversial British writer considers the accomplishments and misfortunes of his life

Spenser Spender wants to make a film of Dickens' "Little Dorrit" using a contemporary London prison as a set. But he is not the only person interested in Dickens. Unwittingly he becomes the catalyst for bizarre meetings, coincidences and events, culminating in an apocalyptic conflagration.

An original and superbly entertaining appraisal of the uniquely English approach to stagecraft.

The fifth instalment in Peter Ackroyd's acclaimed and bestselling six-volume History of England.

The third volume of Peter Ackroyd's magisterial six-part History of England, taking readers from the accession of the first Stuart king, James I, to the overthrow of his grandson, James II

This title is also available as a filmle as a film___

EMANUEL SWEDENBORG is acknowledged today as one of the great thinkers of the eighteenth century and a pioneering figure in the history of Western thought. Described by Jorge Luis Borges as the most extraordinary man in recorded history, Swedenborg’s book Heaven and Hell has had a direct influence on William Blake, Honoré de Balzac, Gerard de Nerval, W B Yeats, S T Coleridge, Fyodor Dostoevsky, C G Jung and many others, and his theory of correspondences is rightly understood as one of the defining influences on Romantic and Symbolist thought. More recently, through the work of Czesław Miłosz, Italo Calvino, A S Byatt and Iain Sinclair, we see his name re-emerge in relation to ‘pyschogeography’, ‘historical realism’ and ‘magical realism’. This brief pocket biography, by award-winning author and biographer Peter Ackroyd, is the perfect introduction to Swedenborg and the first in a series of accessible introductory pocket books.PETER ACKROYD is a broadcaster, essayist and one of the UK’s foremost biographers and novelists. He has written nearly 40 works of non-fiction, including studies on William Blake, T S Eliot and Isaac Newton, and nearly 20 works of fiction. Among his many awards and honours are the Guardian Fiction Prize (1985), the Whitbread Biography Award (1984) and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize (1998). He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and was awarded a CBE in 2003.

Charles Dickens was a complex personality. Fame, success and wealth could never assuage the shame and sadness of his father's bankruptcy and imprisonment which fuelled his great fiction. In this abridged edition of his acclaimed biography, novelist and cultural historian Peter Ackroyd offers a fresh view of Dickens's life, demonstrating how the novels are set in places where he lived, peopled with characters he knew, and inspired by the dark preoccupations that haunted him.

One of the most enigmatic figures in American literature, J. D. Salinger, author of the classic Catcher in the Rye, eluded fans and journalists throughout his life. This new biography, described by Peter Ackroyd in The Times of London as “energetic and magnificently researched,” offers a true picture of Salinger through new information gleaned from interviews, letters, and public records. Kenneth Slawenski delves into Salinger’s privileged yet troubled youth, revealing the brilliant and vulnerable son of a disapproving father and a loving mother, who entered a social world where he was dismissed as “a Jewish boy from New York” by Gloria Vanderbilt. The biography recounts Salinger’s first heartbreak when Oona O’Neill left him for Charlie Chaplin, as well as his harrowing World War II experiences that haunted him for life. It captures the brilliance of his early writing, his encounters with literary giants like Hemingway and Olivier, and the success of The Catcher in the Rye, which propelled him to fame and led to his retreat to New Hampshire. Covering his brief first marriage and lifelong commitment to Eastern religion, this biography presents an unforgettable story of a unique author that no literature lover should miss.

"Ackroyd, as always, is well worth the read." —Kirkus, starred review Dominion, the fifth volume of Peter Ackroyd’s masterful History of England, begins in 1815 as national glory following the Battle of Waterloo gives way to a post-war depression and ends with the death of Queen Victoria in January 1901. Spanning the end of the Regency, Ackroyd takes readers from the accession of the profligate George IV whose government was steered by Lord Liverpool, whose face was set against reform, to the ‘Sailor King’ William IV whose reign saw the modernization of the political system and the abolition of slavery. But it was the accession of Queen Victoria, at only eighteen years old, that sparked an era of enormous innovation. Technological progress—from steam railways to the first telegram—swept the nation and the finest inventions were showcased at the first Great Exhibition in 1851. The emergence of the middle-classes changed the shape of society and scientific advances changed the old pieties of the Church of England, and spread secular ideas among the population. Though intense industrialization brought booming times for the factory owners, the working classes were still subjected to poor housing, long work hours, and dire poverty. Yet by the end of Victoria’s reign, the British Empire dominated much of the globe, and Britannia really did seem to rule the waves.

James Mallord William Turner (1775- 1851) was both the most admired and the most derided painter of his time. His vision soon outran the taste of his contemporaries, as he began to experiment in pure forms of light and colour, producing masterpieces of impassioned tonality that were still unsold at the time of his death.

'Thames: Sacred River', by the bestselling author of 'London: The Biography', is about the river from source to sea. It covers history from prehistoric times to the present; the flora of the river; paintings and photographs inspired by the Thames; its geology, smells and colour; its literature, laws and landscapes; its magic and myths; its architecture, trade and weather.This book meanders gloriously, rather as the river does itself: here are Toad of Toad Hall and Julius Caesar, Henry VIII and Shelley, Turner and Three Men in a Boat. The reader learns about the fishes that swam in the river and the boats that plied on its surface; about floods and tides; hauntings and suicides; sewers, miasmas and malaria; locks, weirs and embankments; bridges, docks and palaces. All the towns and villages along the river's 215-mile length are described.Peter Ackroyd has a genius for digging out the most surprising and entertaining details, and for writing about them in the most magisterial prose.

The man and the plays - without the boring bits - with commentary by Peter Ackroyd.

For discerning bibliophiles and readers who enjoy unforgettable classic literature, 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die is a trove of reviews covering a century of memorable writing. Each work of literature featured here is a seminal work key to understanding and appreciating the written word.The featured works have been handpicked by a team of international critics and literary luminaries, including Derek Attridge (world expert on James Joyce), Cedric Watts (renowned authority on Joseph Conrad and Graham Greene), Laura Marcus (noted Virginia Woolf expert), and David Mariott (poet and expert on African-American literature), among some twenty others.Addictive, browsable, knowledgeable—1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die will be a boon companion for anyone who loves good writing and an inspiration for anyone who is just beginning to discover a love of books. Each entry is accompanied by an authoritative yet opinionated critical essay describing the importance and influence of the work in question. Also included are publishing history and career details about the authors, as well as reproductions of period dust jackets and book designs.

In this novel the light and the dark sides of 19th-century London flow into each other, attracting the attention of famous names such as Marx and Gissing, but also of less well-known characters, who play a significant role in a tale that is a mixture of fable, adventure and Gothic comedy.

Cricket on the hearth. Battle of life. Haunted man and the ghost's bargain.

Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely short- sighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colourful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was none the less a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women - and avidly read by generations of readers.

The third brilliant short biography in Peter Ackroyd’s Brief Lives series. Newton is a companion volume to Chaucer and Turner.Isaac Newton (1642-1727), the English genius, made his greatest contributions to original thought before the age of twenty-five while at home in Lincolnshire escaping the great plague of 1665, a period of which he “I was in the prime of age for invention.”Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, an MP, Master of the Mind and President of the Royal Society, Newton, the author of Principia, one of the most important books in the history of science, was fascinated by calculus, the planets and the laws of motion, and, in keeping with his age, blurred the borders between natural philosophy and speculation. He was as passionate about astrology as astronomy, and dabbled in alchemy, while his religious faith was never undermined by his scientific efforts.

Geoffrey Chaucer has some claim to being the greatest poet in the English language. Yet he has also been considered to be an invisible poet, self- depreciating and ironic, leaving only the breath of his comedy behind. In truth a great deal is known of him. He was a royal servant, who was indicted for rape.

He was the very first icon of the silver screen, and is one of the most recognisable faces in Hollywood, even a hundred years on from his first film. This masterful brief life offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings the Little Tramp into vivid... číst celé

The language and way of thinking of the Venetians set them aside from the rest of Italy. They are an island people, linked to the sea and to the tides, rather than the land. The moon rules Venice, Ackroyd writes 'It is built on ocean shells and ocean ground; it has the aspect of infinity'.

What is the mystery of thomas chatterton? a young poet and elderly female novelist try to decode the clues found within an eighteenth-century manuscript, only to discover that their investigation is disclosing other secrets for which there is no solution. But they are not alone in their quest: the mystery is being revivied in an earlier age, as in the mid- nineteenth century henry wallis paints his celebrated portrait of chatterton lying dead in an attic room. And chatterton himself, the young man who was described as the originator and inspiration of the romantic movement, steps forward with his own story of the events that happened in august 1770. 14/12/87-offset hh: b for om & uk: 240pp: 10000 at $3.99(om) & 50000 at $3.99> >(uk): max. UK LEAD TITLE

First Light begins with an ominous coincidence: the reappearance of the ancient night sky during the excavation of an astronomically aligned Neolithic grave in Dorset. Add to this a group of wonderful eccentrics—archaeologists, astronomers, a civil servant, a stand-up comic, local rustics—who converge on the site to disturb the quiet seclusion of Pilgrin Valley. Someone (or something) is trying to sabotage the best efforts of the excavators, headed by Mark Clare, to unearth the dormant secrets of the burial ground. Meanwhile, at the nearby observatory, astronomer Damien Fall, his telescope focused on the red star Aldebaran, is unnerved by the deeper significance he imputes to the celestial sophistication of the region’s ancient inhabitants. And Joey Hanover, a retired music-hall and TV entertainer searching for his own past, has learned secrets from Farmer Mint and his son, Boy, the weirdly cryptic guardians of their ancestral home in the valley. What do all these, among others, have in common? All is masterfully woven into an immensely engaging and entertaining novel—a suspenseful reflection on life, nature, and the cosmos, and above all an illuminating and enchanting story.

Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century? As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of himself, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films. Grace Kelly, Carey Grant and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style, and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures cuts and bruises from a real-life fearsome flock of birds. Alfred Hitchcock wrests the director's chair back from the master of control and discovers what lurks just out of sight, in the corner of the shot.

NOW AN UNMISSABLE FILM STARRING BILL NIGHY, DOUGLAS BOOTH AND OLIVIA COOKE. ‘Mesmerising, macabre and totally brilliant’ Daily Mail Before the Ripper, fear had another name. London, 1880. A series of gruesome murders attributed to the mysterious 'Limehouse Golem' strikes fear into the heart of the capital. Inspector John Kildare must track down this brutal serial killer in the damp, dark alleyways of riverside London. But how does Dan Leno, music hall star extraordinaire, find himself implicated in this crime spree, and what does Elizabeth Cree, on trial for the murder of her husband, have to hide? Peter Ackroyd brings Victorian London to life in all its guts and glory, as we travel from the glamour of the music hall to the slums of the East End, meeting George Gissing and Karl Marx along the way.

London Under is a wonderful, atmospheric, imaginative, oozing short study of everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheatres to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts and modern Tube stations. The depth below is hot, warmer than the surface, and tunnels down through the geological layers, meeting the creatures that dwell in darkness, real and fictional - rats and eels, monsters and ghosts. There is a Bronze Age trackway under the Isle of Dogs, Anglo-Saxon graves were found under St Paul's, and the monastery of Whitefriars lies beneath Fleet Street. In Kensal Green cemetery a hydraulic device lowered bodies into the catacombs below - 'Welcome to the lower depths' - while a door in the plinth of the statue of Boadicea on Westminster Bridge leads to a huge tunnel, packed with cables for gas, water and telephone lines. When the Metropolitan Line was opened in 1864 the guards asked for permission to grow beards to protect themselves against the sulphurous fumes, and called their engines by the names of tyrants - Czar, Kaiser, Mogul - and even Pluto, god of the underworld. 'The vastness of the space, a second earth,' writes Peter Ackroyd, 'elicits sensations of wonder and of terror. It partakes of myth and dream in equal measure.' Going under London is to penetrate history, to enter a hidden world.

Drawing upon extracts from contemporary letters, diaries and memoirs of fascinating inhabitants and visitors, this anthology tells the story of London from its earliest years up to the present day.

'There is no Light without Darknesse and no Substance without Shaddowe' So proclaims Nicholas Dyer, assistant to Sir Christopher Wren and the man with a commission to build seven London churches to stand as beacons of the enlightenment. But Dyer plans to conceal a dark secret at the heart of each church - to create a forbidding architecture that will survive for eternity. Two hundred and fifty years later, London detective Nicholas Hawksmoor is investigating a series of gruesome murders on the sites of certain eighteenth-century churches - crimes that make no sense to the modern mind . . . 'Chillingly brilliant . . . sinister and stunningly well executed' Independent on Sunday Peter Ackroyd was born in London in 1949. A novelist, biographer and historian, he has been the literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times, as well as writing several highly acclaimed books including a biography of Dickens and London: The Biography. He lives in London.

On ritual occasions Plato, the orator, summons the citizens of London to impart the ancient history of their city, dwelling particularly on the unhappy era of Mouldwarp (AD 1500-2300). schovat popis

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What if John Milton, Cromwell's secretary, anticipating the King's return to London, had decided to flee England in order to avoid imprisonment or death? What if he had crossed the ocean and joined the Puritans recently settled in New England? From this idea Peter Ackroyd creates an enthralling story of conflict, treachery, hypocrisy and greed.

Covers the whole of English cultural history from the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day--from the Venerable Bede through English myths such as the legends about King Arthur and Albion to C.S. Lewis; from Chaucer through Spenser to George Eliot; from the English mystics through the philosopher Locke to Iris Murdoch; from Purcell through Elgar to Michael Tippett; from Hogarth through Constable to Turner; from mystery plays through Shakespeare to music hall. Ackroyd's favourite themes are here: the visionary poetry of Blake, the theatrical novels of Dickens, the humanism of Thomas More--and there are also explorations of forgery and plagiarism, Romanticism, artificiality, farce and pantomime, assimilation and energy.--From publisher description

Sophia Chrysanthis is initially dazzled when the celebrated German archaeologist, Herr Obermann, comes in search of a Greek bride who can read the works of Homer and assist in his excavations of the city he believes is Ancient Troy.

Exploring the rich tapestry of London's history, the book delves into the lives and experiences of its gay population, revealing how their contributions have shaped the city. Through a unique lens, it highlights significant events, cultural shifts, and the resilience of the LGBTQ+ community, offering a fresh perspective on the capital's evolution and diversity.

From a master historian -- a brilliantly original historical novel set in late-14th century London. ""I am sister to the day and night. I am sister to the woods." Sister Clarisse, a nun in the House of St. Mary at Clerkenwell, experiences visions. She dreams of the English King. Are her prophesies the babblings of the crazed? Or can she "see" a future in which Henry Bolingbroke overthrows Richard II? This clever and colourful novel begins with "The Nun's Tale, and continues with "The Friar's Tale, "The Merchant's Tale and "The Clerk's Tale. Thus, story by story, Peter Ackroyd builds his portrait of medieval London. The people are disenchanted with the Church, with its wealth and corruption, its Pope in Rome and its Pope in Avignon. But heresy is dangerous -- almost as dangerous as rebellion. This is a novel about spies and counterspies, radicals and idealists, murderers and arsonists, sects and secret societies. It is a tale richly atmospheric and satisfying in its historical detail. "From the Hardcover edition.

The English see more ghosts than any other nation. From medieval times to the present day, stories have been told about ghosts who avenge injustice, souls who long for peace and spooks who just want to have fun. The English Ghost is a treasure trove of such sightings; comical and scary, like all the best ghost stories, these accounts, packed with eerie detail, range from the moaning child that terrified Wordworth's nephew at Cambridge to modern day hitchhikers on Blue Bell Hill.

"It was at Oxford that I first met Bysshe. We arrived at our college on the same day; confusing to a mere foreigner, it is called University College. I had seen him from my window and had been struck by his auburn locks." The long-haired poet - 'Mad Shelley' - and the serious-minded student from Switzerland spark each other's animated interest in the new philosophy of science which is over-turning long-cherished beliefs. Perhaps there is no God. In which case, where is the divine spark, the soul? Can it be found in the human brain? The heart? The eyes? Victor Frankenstein begins his anatomy experiments in a barn in the secluded village of Headington, near Oxford. The coroner's office in Clarendon Street provides corpses - but they have often died of violence and drowning: they are damaged and putrifying. Victor moves his coils and jars and electrical fluids to a deserted pottery manufactury in Limehouse. And, from Limehouse, makes contact with the Doomesday Men - the resurrectionists. He pays better than any hospital for the bodies of the very recently dead. Even so, perfect specimens are hard to come by ... until that Thames-side dawn when Victor, waiting, wrapped in his greatcoat, on his wooden jetty, hears the splashing of oars and sees in the half-light that slung into the stern of the approaching boat is the corpse of a handsome young man, one hand trailing in the water....

This is an immortal story of chivalry, treachery and death brought to new life for our times. The legend of King Arthur has retained its appeal and popularity through the Mordred's treason, the knightly exploits of Tristan, Lancelot's fatally divided loyalties and his love for Guenevere, and the quest for the "Holy Grail". Now retold by Peter Ackroyd with his signature clarity, charm and relish for a good story, the result is not only one of the most readable accounts of the knights of the Round Table but also one of the most moving.

Three Brothers follows the lives and fortunes of Harry, Daniel and Sam Hanway, a trio of brothers born on the same day in the middle of last century, in a grim council estate in Camden. After their mother inexplicably abandons the family, each boy is forced to make his own way in the world. From the bustling cut-throat world of Fleet street, hallowed London publishing offices, and the wealth and comfort of Chelsea, to the smoky shadowy streets of Limehouse and Hackney, this is a trip around the city, down its streets, riding on the tubes, at a very particular moment of history, and unusually for Ackroyd's fiction, all within living memory. London is the backdrop and the connecting fabric of these three lives, reinforcing Ackroyd's grand theme that history and the city both makes and creates us, surrounds and engulfs us.

At the centre of this intriguing, irresistible novel are the young Lambs: Charles, constrained by the tedium of his work as a clerk at the East India Company, taking refuge in a drink or three too many while spreading his wings as a young writer, and his clever, adoring sister Mary, confined by domesticity, an ailing, dotty father and a maddening mother- Into their lives comes William Ireland, an ambitious 17-year-old antiquarian and bookseller, anxious not only to impress his demanding showman of a father, but to make his mark on the literary world. When Ireland turns up a document in the handwriting of Shakespeare himself, he takes Mary into his confidence - but soon scholars and actors alike are beating a path to the little bookshop in Holborn Passage. Touching and tragic, ingenious, funny and vividly alive, this is Ackroyd at the top of his form in a masterly retelling of a nineteenth-century drama which keeps the reader guessing right to the end.

A darkly playful novel, filled with mystery, revenge, outlandish killings, greed and jealousy, from the multi-award-winning author

A magisterial portrayal of English Christianity over the last 1,400 years.

Eine großartige Geschichte der Weltstadt London »London ist so groß und wild, dass es alles in sich enthält«, schreibt Peter Ackroyd und erkundet diese Stadt wie ein menschliches Wesen, das uns betört, verwirrt, aber niemals gleichgültig lässt. Am sinnlichen Detail, am allgegenwärtigen Rot der Sandsteine, an den Gerüchen der vielen Märkte oder am Klangbild, das einst von Glockengeläut und »Balladenverkäufern« geprägt wurde, entschlüsselt er die Epochen, die London geprägt haben. Die Kritiker sind sich einig: Ackroyds Buch macht alle anderen Londonbücher überflüssig. Nie zuvor hat ein Schriftsteller so lebendig und beseelt die ganze Metropole porträtiert: vom Londoner Untergrund bis zu den Theatern des Westends, von der Großen Pest bis zu Jack the Ripper, von den prähistorischen Funden bis zu den Reklametafeln am Piccadilly. Ein Genuss für alle, die diese Stadt lieben. »Ein reiches Buch, voller Witz und Wissen, voller Elan und voller Leben, brillant geschrieben!« Die Zeit Ausstattung: durchgehend s/w-Abb. im Text

Das Leben des größten Dramatikers aller Zeiten – von einem der renommiertesten britischen Autoren der Gegenwart Wir wissen nicht sicher, wie er aussah, wie er lebte, was er fühlte. Über William Shakespeare (1564-1616) ist kaum etwas Persönliches überliefert. Aber sein Werk strahlt in zeitloser Genialität. Peter Ackroyd lässt sich weder von der Fülle der Shakespeare-Literatur noch von biographischen Ungewissheiten abschrecken. Andere Biographen haben analysiert, Ackroyd lebt sich voller Begeisterung in Shakepeares Welt hinein. Trotzdem vermeidet er jede Idealisierung, sondern bringt uns den begnadeten Dichter in all seinen Stärken und Schwächen nahe.

Nach dem epochalen Werk über London folgt nun die große Biographie über die Themse§§In Großbritannien ist Peter Ackroyd eine Institution. Mit seiner Biographie über London wurde er auch international bekannt. Nun stellt er diesem Standardwerk ein zweites zur Seite: die Biographie über die Themse, jenen Strom, an dem seit vier Jahrtausenden Menschen leben und der untrennbar mit der britischen Geschichte verbunden ist.§§Mit gerade einmal 346 Kilometern ist die Themse ein vergleichsweise kurzer Fluss, und doch ist sie wie kein zweiter aufgeladen mit Geschichte. Sie ist Schauplatz mythischer, historischer, militärischer und kultureller Ereignisse. Ohne die Themse, so Ackroyd, wären London und das britische Empire nicht denkbar. Er folgt der Entwicklung des Flusses, von den Anfängen vor 170 Millionen Jahren über den Urwaldstrom bis zur Entstehung religiöser und weltlicher Macht an seinen Ufern. Mal still und melancholisch, mal kraftvoll und gewaltig nimmt die Themse ihren Lauf durch das Land und die Zeit. Sie ist gleichermaßen Verkehrsweg, Grenze, Spielplatz, Gosse und Machtträgerin.§§

Im Jahr 1900 sitzt Oscar Wilde in einem heruntergekommenen Zimmer des Hotel d'Alsace und beginnt, ein Tagebuch zu schreiben. Dies ist nicht der Wilde, den die Nachwelt kennt – nicht der elegante Dandy, dessen Theaterstücke in London gefeiert wurden. Er ist ein gebrochener Mann, dessen homoerotische Neigungen ihm zum Verhängnis wurden. Sein Schicksal manifestierte sich durch den Maquis von Queensberry, den Vater seines Geliebten Bosie, der alles daran setzte, die Beziehung zu beenden. Wilde sah sich öffentlicher Verleumdung ausgesetzt und klagte Queensberry, doch er unterschätzte die Wucht der öffentlichen Meinung und den Zorn seines Gegners. Letztlich wurde er selbst zum Angeklagten. Gossenjungen, käufliche Knaben und ehemalige Freunde sagten gegen ihn aus, und die Welt, die er einst erobern wollte, offenbarte ihr hässliches Gesicht. Verurteilt zu zwei Jahren Zuchthaus, verließ er das Gericht in Ketten. In diesem fiktiven Tagebuch entfaltet sich das Drama seines Lebens, das von höchsten Empfindungen und tiefsten Abgründen geprägt ist. Peter Ackroyd hat sich mit bemerkenswerter Sensibilität in Wildes Sprache und Stil eingefühlt und ein Werk von großer sprachlicher Eleganz und Eindringlichkeit geschaffen.

Mit der Reihe „Die Geschichte der Welt“ erleben Kinder Seite für Seite ein Abenteuer. In diesem Band geht es um die geheimnisvollen Reiche der Inka, Maya und Azteken. Hier erwartet die jungen Leser eine enorme Bandbreite von Informationen und fantastischen Illustrationen. Wenn Peter Ackroyd, einer der „namhaftesten britischen Gegenwartsautoren“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), über Geschichte und Wissenschaft schreibt, liest es sich spannender als ein Krimi! Ab 10 Jahren.

Überraschend erbt Matthew Palmer von seinem Vater ein Haus in Clerkenwell im Süden Londons. Als er das alte Gebäude zum ersten Mal betritt, spürt er sofort, wie er in dessen magischen Bann geschlagen wird. Es kommt ihm fast wie ein Spukhaus vor, bedrohlich und – obwohl leerstehend – seltsam lebendig, als hätte das Haus selbst eine Seele. Matthew beginnt die Geschichte des Hauses zu recherchieren und stößt dabei auf den berühmten Magier Doktor John Dee, einst Besitzer des geheimnisvollen Hauses. Und Doktor Dee war weit mehr als nur ein Zauberkünstler. Er war Wissenschaftler und Philosoph, Hofastrologe von Elisabeth I., Mathematiker und Alchimist: Ein Mann von ungeheurem Forschungsdrang, der erkunden wollte, was die Welt im Innersten zusammenhält - und der an die Kommunikation mit Geistern glaubte. Je tiefer Matthew in die Geschichte des Hauses eindringt, desto weniger kann er sich den Schatten und Stimmen der Vergangenheit entziehen. Und sie führen ihn schließlich zu einer ungeheuerlichen Erkenntnis über seinen Vater und über sich selbst. Brillant verknüpft Peter Ackroyd in seinem Roman zwei Zeitebenen: Der Leser erlebt das London der Gegenwart und das des 16. Jahrhunderts. Und wie kaum einem anderen Autor gelingt es Peter Ackroyd, die Geschichte, die Orte, die Gebäude dieser einzigartigen Stadt zum Leben zu erwecken.

Mit der Reihe „Die Geschichte der Welt“ erleben Kinder Seite für Seite ein Abenteuer. In diesem Band geht es um die Zeit der Römer. Hier erwartet die jungen Leser eine enorme Bandbreite von Informationen und fantastischen Illustrationen. Wenn Peter Ackroyd, einer der „namhaftesten britischen Gegenwartsautoren“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), über Geschichte und Wissenschaft schreibt, liest es sich spannender als ein Krimi! Ab 10 Jahren.

Von wegen verstaubte Geschichte! Bis heute hat das alte Ägypten nichts von seiner Faszination verloren. In dem neuen Band der Reihe „Die Geschichte der Welt“ führt die Reise zu den Pharaonen, zu geheimnisvollen Mumien und kostbaren Schätzen - und das alles von Peter Ackroyd für Jugendliche so fesselnd präsentiert, dass die Zeit beim Lesen wie im Flug vergeht. Ab 10 Jahren.

Mit der neuen Reihe „Die Geschichte der Welt“ erleben Kinder Seite für Seite ein Abenteuer. In diesem Buch geht es um die Entwicklung der Raumfahrt und den Aufbruch ins Weltall. Eine enorme Bandbreite von Informationen und fantastische Illustrationen erwartet hier die jungen Leser. Und im Anhang finden sich wichtige Daten, Schaubilder und ein Glossar. Wenn Peter Ackroyd, einer der „namhaftesten britischen Gegenwartsautoren“ (Neue Zürcher Zeitung), über Geschichte und Wissenschaft schreibt, liest es sich spannender als ein Krimi! Ab 10 Jahren.

Ab 10 Jahre