Ackroyd, Peter

'Ackroyd makes history accessible to the layman' - Ian Thomson, IndependentThe penultimate volume of Peter Ackroyd's masterful History of England series, Dominion begins in 1815 as national glory following the...

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...

Poet, painter, engraver and visionary, Blake's was a radical spirit fired by genius. Yet his life has remained an enigma. In this magnificent biography Peter Ackroyd discloses the true nature...

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...

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...

In Civil War, Peter Ackroyd continues his dazzling account of England's history, beginning with the progress south of the Scottish king, James VI, who on the death of Elizabeth I...

The scene is London, in 1399. It is the last year of the fourteenth century, and there is talk of an apocalypse. Richard II is on the throne, yet strange...

'Ackroyd makes history accessible to the layman' - Ian Thomson, IndependentThe penultimate volume of Peter Ackroyd's masterful History of England series, Dominion begins in 1815 as national glory following the...

'Ackroyd makes history accessible to the layman' - Ian Thomson, IndependentThe penultimate volume of Peter Ackroyd's masterful History of England series, Dominion begins in 1815 as national glory following the...

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...

In the aftermath of the great fire, eighteenth-century London is a city of extremes. Squalor and superstition vie with elegance and reason as brilliant architect, Nicholas Dyer, is commissioned to...

'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...

London Under is an atmospheric, imaginative introduction to everything that goes on under London, from original springs and streams and Roman amphitheatres to Victorian sewers, gang hideouts and modern Underground...

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. For him it...

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...

Two apparently harmless women reside in cottages one building apart in the idyllic English village of Little Camborne. Miss Finch and Miss Swallow, cousins, have put their pasts behind them...

The astonishing story of mankind's desire to break free from the Earth. Follow dramatic, political power struggles, German scientists switching allegiance and what happened to early rockets transporting fruit flies...

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...

"Thames: Sacred River" is about the river from source to sea. It covers history from prehistoric times to the present, the flora and fauna of the river, paintings and photographs...

Mary Lamb is confined by the restrictions of domesticity: her father is losing his mind, her mother watchful and hostile. The great solace of her life is her brother Charles,...

'Masterly' Observer'Brilliant' Independent on Sunday'Sparks of life' Daily MailThomas More is one of the great figures in English history. Pre-eminent as a courtier and as a humanist, a friend to...

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). He...

Following on from Foundation, Tudors is the second volume in Peter Ackroyd's astonishing series, The History of England.Rich in detail and atmosphere and told in vivid prose, Tudors recounts the...

Rich in detail and atmosphere and told in vivid prose, Tudors recounts the transformation of England from a settled Catholic country to a Protestant superpower. It is the story of...

James Mallord William Turner (1775- 1851) was both the most admired and the most derided painter of his time. His ambition was to excel in all forms of painting and...

In this sumptuous vision of Venice, Peter Ackroyd turns his unparalleled skill at evoking place from London and the River Thames, to Italy and the city of myth, mystery and...

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...