{"title":"Books by Peter Ackroyd","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9780099592945","title":"Queer City","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e Bestseller\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn \u003ci\u003eQueer City\u003c\/i\u003e Peter Ackroyd looks at London in a whole new way – through the history and experiences of its gay population. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn Roman Londinium the city was dotted with \u003ci\u003elupanaria\u003c\/i\u003e (‘wolf dens’ or public pleasure houses), \u003ci\u003efornices \u003c\/i\u003e(brothels) and \u003ci\u003ethermiae\u003c\/i\u003e (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops,  monks and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAckroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music and the horror of AIDS.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eToday, we live in an era of openness and tolerance and Queer London has become part of the new norm. Ackroyd tells us the hidden story of how it got there, celebrating its diversity, thrills and energy on the one hand; but reminding us of its very real terrors, dangers and risks on the other. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Peter Ackroyd is the greatest living chronicler of London' \u003ci\u003eIndependent\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201391493298,"sku":"9780099592945","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780099592945_c1825a7e-38aa-4e27-b27c-816977f0eb68.jpg?v=1786011596"},{"product_id":"9780141442297","title":"The Canterbury Tales: A retelling by Peter Ackroyd","description":"\u003cp\u003eMaking a major part of England's literary heritage accessible to a new audience, Peter Ackroyd's \u003ci\u003eThe Canterbury Tales: A Retelling\u003c\/i\u003e renders Geoffrey Chaucer's timeless tales in lucid, compelling modern English prose, with illustrations by Nick Bantock in Penguin Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eOn a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a group of travellers agree to a storytelling competition. As they make their way on the road, they drink, laugh, flirt, argue and try to outdo each other with their tales. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes, retold here for our times by bestselling author Peter Ackroyd.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eGeoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat, best known as the author of \u003ci\u003eThe Canterbury Tales\u003c\/i\u003e. Chaucer is credited as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. The first poet to have been buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, his other works include \u003ci\u003eThe House of Fame\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTroilus and Criseyde \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eThe Book of the Duchess.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is an award-winning writer and historian. Formerly literary editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e and chief book reviewer for the \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e, he is the author of novels such as \u003ci\u003eHawksmoor\u003c\/i\u003e (1985) and \u003ci\u003eThe House of Doctor Dee \u003c\/i\u003e(1993), as well as non-fiction including\u003ci\u003e Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion\u003c\/i\u003e (2002), \u003ci\u003eLondon: The Biography \u003c\/i\u003e(2000), and \u003ci\u003eThames: Sacred River\u003c\/i\u003e (2007). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Ackroyd's retelling is compulsive, bold and rare ... as fresh as new paint'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eObserver\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'The only version to read'\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eTime Out\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201521909938,"sku":"9780141442297","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780141442297.jpg?v=1786011633"},{"product_id":"9780711269422","title":"Colours of London","description":"\u003cb\u003ePeter Ackroyd turns his gaze to the colours of London in this fascinating and visually engaging work, exploring how the city's many hues have come to shape its history and identity.  \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Think of the colours of London and what do you imagine? The\u003cb\u003e reds of open-top buses,\u003c\/b\u003e phone boxes and terracotta bricks? The\u003cb\u003e grey smog of Victorian industry\u003c\/b\u003e, Portland stone and pigeons in Trafalgar square? Or the gradations of \u003cb\u003eyellows\u003c\/b\u003e, \u003cb\u003eviolets \u003c\/b\u003eand \u003cb\u003eblues \u003c\/b\u003ethat shimmer on the Thames at sunset – reflecting the \u003cb\u003eincandescent light of a city that never truly goes dark\u003c\/b\u003e. We associate\u003cb\u003e green with royal parks\u003c\/b\u003e and the District Line; gold with royal carriages, the Golden Lane Estate, and the tops of monuments and cathedrals.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e The colours of London have \u003cb\u003einspired artists \u003c\/b\u003e(Van Gogh, Turner, Monet), \u003cb\u003edesigners \u003c\/b\u003e(Harry Beck) and \u003cb\u003esocial reformers\u003c\/b\u003e (Charles Booth). \u003cb\u003eColour is everywhere in the city,\u003c\/b\u003e and each one holds myriad \u003cb\u003elinks to the city's past\u003c\/b\u003e. And for all the colours still surrounding us today, many are long lost, hidden only in diaries, artworks and in the monochromatic shades of black-and-white photography.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e In \u003ci\u003eColours of London\u003c\/i\u003e, Peter Ackroyd examines the city's fascinating relationship with colour, alongside \u003cb\u003especially commissioned colourised photographs\u003c\/b\u003e from Dynamichrome, which \u003cb\u003ebring a lost London back to life. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e London has been the main character in Ackroyd's work ever since his first novel, and he has won countless prizes in both fiction and non-fiction for his truly remarkable body of work. Here, he channels a\u003cb\u003e lifetime of knowledge\u003c\/b\u003e of the great city, writing with \u003cb\u003eclarity and passion\u003c\/b\u003e about the hues and shades which have shaped London's journey thorugh history into the present day.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e A\u003cb\u003e truly invaluable book for lovers of art, history, photography or urban geography\u003c\/b\u003e, this beautifully illustrated title tells a rich and fascinating story of the history of this great and ever-changing city.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43201813282994,"sku":"9780711269422","price":25.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780711269422_7cd13c2c-ed22-44d8-b039-ca00aba78886.jpg?v=1786014789"},{"product_id":"9781447236818","title":"Tudors","description":"\u003cp\u003eFollowing on from \u003ci\u003eFoundation\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eTudors \u003c\/i\u003eis the second volume in Peter Ackroyd's astonishing series, The History of England.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRich in detail and atmosphere and told in vivid prose, \u003ci\u003eTudors \u003c\/i\u003erecounts the transformation of England from a settled Catholic country to a Protestant superpower.  It is the story of Henry VIII's cataclysmic break with Rome, and his relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir; of how the brief reign of the teenage king, Edward VI, gave way to the violent reimposition of Catholicism and the stench of bonfires under 'Bloody Mary'. It tells, too, of the long reign of Elizabeth I, which, though marked by civil strife, plots against the queen and even an invasion force, finally brought stability.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAbove all, however, it is the story of the English Reformation and the making of the Anglican Church. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, England was still largely feudal and looked to Rome for direction; at its end, it was a country where good governance was the duty of the state, not the church, and where men and women began to look to themselves for answers rather than to those who ruled them.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":43204393435314,"sku":"9781447236818","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781447236818_cf9d3897-7bf7-40a5-966a-095a45e3f403.jpg?v=1786020574"},{"product_id":"9781447271697","title":"Civil War","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eStep into the tumultuous age of Stuart England with Peter Ackroyd's enlightening \u003ci\u003eCivil War\u003c\/i\u003e. Beginning with James I, the first Scottish king of England, it tracks an era of massive upheaval, ending with the dramatic flight of his grandson, James II, into exile.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eCivil War \u003c\/i\u003etransports you to the heart of the 17th-century Britain, where you meet figures like James I with his shrewd perspectives on diverse matters, and Charles I, whose inept rule ignited the flames of the English Civil War. Ackroyd offers a brilliant – warts and all – portrayal of Charles's nemesis Oliver Cromwell, Parliament's great military leader and England's only dictator, who began his career as a political liberator but ended it as much of a despot as the king he executed.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBeyond this political turmoil, Ackroyd also explores the rich cultural and literary contributions of the Jacobean era. This was a world where Shakespeare's masterpieces were penned, John Donne weaved his poetry and Thomas Hobbes crafted his philosophical marvel, \u003ci\u003eLeviathan\u003c\/i\u003e. 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In it, Ackroyd takes readers from the end of the Boer War and the accession of Edward VII to the end of the twentieth century, when his great-granddaughter Elizabeth II had been on the throne for almost five decades. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eA century of enormous change, encompassing two world wars, four monarchs (Edward VII, George V, George VI and the Queen), the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the Labour Party, women’s suffrage, the birth of the NHS, the march of suburbia and the clearance of the slums. It was a period that saw the work of the Bloomsbury Group and T. S. 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But when a mysterious foreigner, Theodore Cadmus - from a Mediterranean island nobody has heard of - moves into the middle cottage, the safe monotony of their lives is shattered.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e Soon, long-hidden secrets and long-held grudges threaten to surface, drawing all into a vortex of subterfuge, theft, violence, mayhem . . . and murder.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":43205473796274,"sku":"9781786898975","price":9.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"Hardback","offer_id":57688224039285,"sku":"9781786898944","price":12.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781786898975.jpg?v=1792686160"},{"product_id":"9780330544283","title":"Foundation","description":"\u003cp\u003eHaving written enthralling biographies of London and of its great river, the Thames, Peter Ackroyd now turns to England itself. 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But beyond the familiar stories of power and politics, its true life played out in the streets, where \u003cb\u003emarket traders, music hall crowds, and factory workers\u003c\/b\u003e gave it its vitality, its light and its shadows. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eForgotten London\u003c\/b\u003e  \u003c\/i\u003euncovers these stories, bringing to life the highs and lows of those who made the city what it was. Covering the transformative years from the \u003cb\u003eVictorian era to the Second World War\u003c\/b\u003e, this book immerses readers in a side of London often overlooked. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThe book is also richly illustrated, featuring \u003cb\u003erare photographs, colorised images, and period artwork\u003c\/b\u003e. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWith Peter Ackroyd’s masterful storytelling, this is an unforgettable journey into the city’s past. 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As the Georgian era gave way to that of Victoria, readers could delight not only in the work of Byron, Shelley and Wordsworth but also the great nineteenth-century novelists: the Brontë sisters, George Eliot, Mrs Gaskell, Thackeray, and, of course, Dickens, whose work has become synonymous with Victorian England. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFinally, Ackroyd illustrates the British Empire's global expansion, reflecting Britannia's iron rule over the waves, the shockwaves of which are still felt today.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301507346805,"sku":"9781509881321","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781509881321_9eca79f6-e89b-4df1-9cf4-6ab683d359da.jpg?v=1786021616"},{"product_id":"9781509811472","title":"Revolution","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eRevolution\u003c\/i\u003e, 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. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn 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.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eLate Stuart and Georgian England marked the creation of the great pillars of the English state. 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But his reign is soon to be torn apart by violence, revenge and tragedy ...\u003cbr\u003eSir Thomas Malory's \u003ci\u003eLe Morte d'Arthur\u003c\/i\u003e made the legend of King Arthur immortal. Now Peter Ackroyd's retelling brings his timeless story of love, heroism and betrayal to new life for our times.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSir Thomas Malory (c.1405-1471) was a knight and estate owner in the mid 15th century, who spent many years in prison for political crimes as well as robbery. He wrote \u003ci\u003eLe Morte d'Arthur\u003c\/i\u003e, the first great English prose epic, while imprisoned in Newgate. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePeter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is an award-winning writer and historian. Formerly literary editor of \u003ci\u003eThe Spectator\u003c\/i\u003e and chief book reviewer for the \u003ci\u003eThe Times\u003c\/i\u003e, he is the author of novels such as \u003ci\u003eHawksmoor\u003c\/i\u003e (1985) and \u003ci\u003eThe House of Doctor Dee \u003c\/i\u003e(1993), as well as non-fiction including\u003ci\u003e Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion\u003c\/i\u003e (2002), \u003ci\u003eLondon: The Biography \u003c\/i\u003e(2000), and \u003ci\u003eThames: Sacred River\u003c\/i\u003e (2007). \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIf you enjoyed \u003ci\u003eThe Death of King Arthur\u003c\/i\u003e, you might like Ackroyd's \u003ci\u003eThe Canterbury Tales\u003c\/i\u003e, also available in Penguin Modern Classics.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'I admire this version enormously ... This story has to move with both swiftness and dignity, and yoking those two qualities together is not an easy task; but Ackroyd does it with ease'\u003cbr\u003ePhilip Pullman, author of \u003ci\u003eHis Dark Materials \u003c\/i\u003etrilogy \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e'Ackroyd's lightly trimmed and streamlined \u003ci\u003eLe Morte d'Arthur\u003c\/i\u003e makes it eminently readable' \u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eSunday Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57481565831541,"sku":"9780140455656","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9780140455656.jpg?v=1786089837"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-peter-ackroyd.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}