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London: The Biography
http://www.fishpond.com/Books/London-Peter-Ackroyd/9780099422587
By
Peter Ackroyd
RRP US$40.99 US$20.44 Save US$20.55 (50%)
Free Shipping Worldwide Ships from UK supplier | Rating: | | | Format: | Paperback, 848 pages | | Other Information: | illustrations | | Published In: | United Kingdom, 04 August 2001 |
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 is an organism with its own laws of growth and change, so this book is a biography rather than a history. Ackroyd reveals the dozens of ways in which the continuity of the city survives - in ward boundaries unchanged since the Middle Ages, in vocabulary and in various traditions - showing London as constantly changing, yet forever the same in essence. |
About the AuthorPeter Ackroyd has written acclaimed biographies of Ezra Pound, T.S. Eliot, Charles Dickens, William Blake, Shakespeare and Thomas More, as well as short books about Chaucer, J.M.W. Turner, Isaac Newton and most recently, Edgar Allan Poe. A bestselling biographer, historian, novelist and broadcaster, he holds a CBE for services to literature. He is the author of the London: The Biography and Thames: Sacred River, and lives in London PrizesA masterpiece: London: A Biography is the culmination and distillation of Peter Ackroyd's lifelong obsession with the history and topography of London. Vividly anecdotal and brilliantly original. Reviews"It would be no exaggeration to say that Peter Ackroyd's 'biography' of our capital is the book about London. It contains a lifetime of reading and research-but this huge book is light and airy and playful-[He] leads us on a journey both historical and geographical, but also imaginative. Every street, alley and courtyard has a story, and Ackroyd brings it to life for us - marvellous" -- A N Wilson Daily Mail "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. Sparkling, witty scholarship is constantly transformed into smoky mystical street-history, with dark hypnotic meditations on fog, fire, sewage, suicide and civic resurrection" -- Richard Holmes Daily Telegraph "Ackroyd is the most effortless guide. You wander by his side through the streets of the old city, savouring its bustle, colours and its smells, the stink of living. This is much more than history; it is a tapestry of inspiration and love. You will not find a better, more visionary book about a place we take for granted" Observer "It's this decade's finest work of non-fiction" -- Jude Rogers The Word "[London] may be several years old but it remains one of the leading narratives as he cleverly weaves through centuries of history to reveal to us the hundreds of different cities within a city" -- Fiona Hamilton The Times
| Publisher: | Vintage | | ISBN: | 0099422581 |
| EAN: | 9780099422587 | | Dimensions: | 23.0 x 15.0 x 4.0 centimeters (1.07 kg) |
| Age Range: |
15+ years |
|
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