Product Description

A 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.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3561 in Books
• Published on: 2001-09-06
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 848 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
When the eminent novelist and biographer Peter Ackroyd finished writing London: The Biography, he almost immediately had a heart attack, such was the effort of his 800-page work about the "human body" that is this most fascinating of cities. 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... it embodies the energy and exaltation of a city continually beating in great waves of progress and of confidence."

Probably there is no one better placed than Ackroyd--the author of mammoth lives of Dickens and Blake, and novels such as Hawksmoor and Dan Leno and the Lime House Golem which set singular characters against the backdrop of a city constantly shifting in time--to write such a rich, sinewy account of "Infinite London".

Ackroyd's London is no mere chronology. Its chapters take on such varied themes as drinking, sex, childhood, poverty, crime and punishment, sewage, food, pestilence and fire, immigration, maps, theatre and war. We learn that gin was "the demon of London for half a century", and that "it has been estimated that in the 1740s and 1750s there were 17,000 'gin-houses'." Fleet Street was an area known for its "violent delights" where "a 14-year-old boy, only 18 inches high, was to be seen in 1702 at a grocer's shop called the Eagle and Child by Shoe Lane." By the mid 19th century "London had become known as the greatest city on earth." By 1939 "one in five of the British population had become a Londoner."

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." Above all, he insists that the "dark secret life" of the metropolis is as relevant today as it was in perhaps its most appropriate period, Victorian London.

Again and again Ackroyd returns to the image of London as a living organism, hence his use of the word "biography" in the title. At once awed by and intimate with this "ubiquitous" city, he stresses that "it can be located nowhere in particular... its circumference is everywhere." –-Catherine Taylor

Time Out
`wisely swaps chronology for excavating the city's psyche in themed chapters'

Synopsis
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 a living organism, with its own laws of growth and change, so London is a biography rather than a history. It differs from other histories, too, in the range and diversity of its contents. Ackroyd portrays London from the time of the Druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century, noting magnificence in both epochs, but this is not a simple chronological record. There are 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. London is perhaps the most important study of the city ever written, and confirms Ackroyd's status as what one critic has called 'our age's greatest London imagination.'

Customer Reviews

Limited history
Rambling, unfocused, poorly researched, and little real history. An enjoyable holiday read perhaps, but those looking to learn about the origins of this great city should look elsewhere. Most of the discussion centers on the 17th and 18th centuries and most of the anecdotes come from only two souces. The author could have taken the trouble to do a little more research! Very disappointing.

London Marathon
Couldn't/wouldn't get into it. Have read very little of it, and it was some time ago and I don't really remember it, so have no right to comment. Especially in the midst of such distinguished reviewers who have displayed the qualities required of anyone who completes the London Marathon.

But I will anyway. Viz:

I can relate to some reviewers' sentiments. Some, though not all.

One of those choice few I addressed as follows:

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Talk of damning with faint praise! You seem to want to praise it like most of the other reviewers, but you let slip the fact that it doesn't really work for you until Page 772! Well, I personally can't be bothered to plough all the way through to Page 772 to get the gold! It's not as though there aren't any other books out there or other things I could be doing besides reading for that matter.

The following just sprang to mind regarding what [little] I've seen of Ackroyd's work:

[Onerous and] ponderous [portentous] tome, heavy with obsessiveness and lacking a certain leaven of lightness, charm and humour.

To my mind, anyway. Others have different minds, obviously.

Maybe I'll post this and see what happens if I dare to go against the flow!

----

Oh no! I've just posted it!

Well, I'll just have to sit back and see what happens.

'Tis all theatre, I'll tell myself as the brickbats fly. Ouch!

Sorry, sorry. I take it all back.

Ouch!

London in all its glory
I love London and am constantly excited about learning more about this, in my opinion, the best city in the world. This book is fascinating and if you can't get through it all in one go (it's a monster of a book) then you can dip in and out of it. I would recommend it to anyone whether or not you know the city well.