Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others,

William Blake William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his life, Blake has become a seminal figure in the history of the Romantic poetry, poetry and visual art of the Roma ...

Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...

T. S. Eliot Thomas Stearns Eliot (26 September 18884 January 1965) was a poet, essayist and playwright.Bush, Ronald. "T. S. Eliot's Life and Career", in John A Garraty and Mark C. Carnes (eds), ''American National Biography''. New York: Oxford University ...

Charlie Chaplin Sir Charles Spencer Chaplin (16 April 188925 December 1977) was an English comic actor, filmmaker, and composer who rose to fame in the era of silent film. He became a worldwide icon through his screen persona, the Tramp, and is considered o ...

and

Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry V ...

, he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards. He is noted for the volume of work he has produced, the range of styles therein, his skill at assuming different voices, and the depth of his research. He was elected a fellow of the

Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the RSL has about 800 Fellows, elect ...

in 1984 and appointed a

Commander of the Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

in 2003.

Early life and education

Ackroyd was born in

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

and raised on a

council estate Public housing in the United Kingdom, also known as council housing or social housing, provided the majority of rented accommodation until 2011, when the number of households in private rental housing surpassed the number in social housing. D ...

in East Acton, in what he has described as a "strict"

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

household by his mother and grandmother, after his father disappeared from the family home. He first knew that he was gay when he was seven. He was educated at St. Benedict's, Ealing, and at

Clare College, Cambridge Clare College is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England. The college was founded in 1326 as University Hall, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the Unive ...

, from which he graduated with a

double first The British undergraduate degree classification system is a Grading in education, grading structure used for undergraduate degrees or bachelor's degrees and Master's degree#Integrated Masters Degree, integrated master's degrees in the United Kingd ...

in English literature. In 1972, he was a Mellon fellow at

Yale University Yale University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the List of Colonial Colleges, third-oldest institution of higher education in the United Stat ...

Work

The result of his Yale fellowship was ''Notes for a New Culture'', written when Ackroyd was only 22 and eventually published in 1976. The title, an echo of

's ''Notes Towards the Definition of Culture'' (1948), was an early indication of Ackroyd's penchant for exploring and re-examining the works of other London-based writers. He worked at ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' magazine between 1973 and 1977 as literary editor and became joint managing editor in 1978, a position he held until 1982. He worked as chief book reviewer for ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' and was a frequent broadcaster on radio. Since 1984 he has been a

fellow of the Royal Society of Literature The Royal Society of Literature (RSL) is a learned society founded in 1820 by George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV to "reward literary merit and excite literary talent". A charity that represents the voice of literature in the UK, the ...

. His literary career began with poetry; his work in that field includes such works as ''London Lickpenny'' (1973) and ''The Diversions of Purley'' (1987). In 1982 he published ''The Great Fire of London'', his first novel, which is a reworking of

' novel ''

Little Dorrit ''Little Dorrit'' is a novel by English author Charles Dickens, originally published in Serial (literature), serial form between 1855 and 1857. The story features Amy Dorrit, youngest child of her family, born and raised in the Marshalsea pris ...

''. The novel set the stage for the long sequence of novels Ackroyd has produced since, all of which deal in some way with the complex interaction of time and space and what Ackroyd calls "the spirit of place". However, this transition to being a novelist was unexpected. The novel received generally positive reviews on its publication, although many reviewers have subsequently reassessed it in the light of '' Hawksmoor'' three years later, which had a similar focus albeit with a different historical perspective. In an interview with Patrick McGrath in 1989, Ackroyd said:

I enjoy it, I suppose, but I never thought I'd be a novelist. I never wanted to be a novelist. I can't bear fiction. I hate it. It's so untidy. When I was a young man I wanted to be a poet, then I wrote a critical book, and I don't think I even read a novel till I was about 26 or 27.

In his novels he often contrasts historical settings with present-day segments (e.g. ''The Great Fire of London'', ''Hawksmoor'', ''The House of Doctor Dee''). Many of Ackroyd's novels are set in London and deal with the ever-changing, but at the same time stubbornly consistent nature of the city. Often this theme is explored through the city's artists, especially its writers:

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

in ''The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde'' (1983), a fake autobiography of Wilde;

Nicholas Hawksmoor Nicholas Hawksmoor ( – 25 March 1736) was an English architect. He was a leading figure of the English Baroque style of architecture in the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries. Hawksmoor worked alongside the principal architects ...

, Sir

Christopher Wren Sir Christopher Wren FRS (; – ) was an English architect, astronomer, mathematician and physicist who was one of the most highly acclaimed architects in the history of England. Known for his work in the English Baroque style, he was ac ...

and Sir

John Vanbrugh Sir John Vanbrugh (; 24 January 1664 (baptised) – 26 March 1726) was an English architect, dramatist and herald, perhaps best known as the designer of Blenheim Palace and Castle Howard. He wrote two argumentative and outspoken Restor ...

in ''Hawksmoor'' (1985);

Thomas Chatterton Thomas Chatterton (20 November 1752 – 24 August 1770) was an English poet whose precocious talents ended in suicide at age 17. He was an influence on Romantic artists of the period such as Shelley, Keats, Wordsworth and Coleridge. Alth ...

and George Meredith in '' Chatterton'' (1987);

John Dee John Dee (13 July 1527 – 1608 or 1609) was an English mathematician, astronomer, teacher, astrologer, occultist, and alchemist. He was the court astronomer for, and advisor to, Elizabeth I, and spent much of his time on alchemy, divination, ...

in ''The House of Dr Dee'' (1993);

Dan Leno George Wild Galvin (20 December 1860 – 31 October 1904), better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall a ...

Karl Marx Karl Marx (; 5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883) was a German philosopher, political theorist, economist, journalist, and revolutionary socialist. He is best-known for the 1848 pamphlet '' The Communist Manifesto'' (written with Friedrich Engels) ...

George Gissing George Robert Gissing ( ; 22 November 1857 – 28 December 1903) was an English novelist, who published 23 novels between 1880 and 1903. In the 1890s he was considered one of the three greatest novelists in England, and by the 1940s he had been ...

and

Thomas De Quincey Thomas Penson De Quincey (; Thomas Penson Quincey; 15 August 17858 December 1859) was an English writer, essayist, and literary critic, best known for his ''Confessions of an English Opium-Eater'' (1821).Eaton, Horace Ainsworth, ''Thomas De Q ...

in ''Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem'' (1994);

John Milton John Milton (9 December 1608 – 8 November 1674) was an English poet, polemicist, and civil servant. His 1667 epic poem ''Paradise Lost'' was written in blank verse and included 12 books, written in a time of immense religious flux and politic ...

in ''Milton in America'' (1996);

Charles Lamb Charles Lamb (10 February 1775 – 27 December 1834) was an English essayist, poet, and antiquarian, best known for his '' Essays of Elia'' and for the children's book '' Tales from Shakespeare'', co-authored with his sister, Mary Lamb (1764� ...

in ''The Lambs of London''. ''Hawksmoor'', winner of both the Whitbread Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize, was inspired by Iain Sinclair's poem "Lud Heat" (1975), which speculated on a mystical power from the positioning of the six churches Nicholas Hawksmoor built. The novel gives Hawksmoor a Satanical motive for the siting of his buildings, and creates a modern namesake, a policeman investigating a series of murders. ''Chatterton'' (1987), a similarly layered novel explores plagiarism and forgery and was shortlisted for the

Booker Prize The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

. '' London: The Biography'' is an extensive and thorough discussion of London through the ages. In 1994 he was interviewed about the

London Psychogeographical Association The London Psychogeographical Association (LPA), sometimes referred to as the London Psychogeographical Committee, is an organisation devoted to psychogeography. The LPA is perhaps best understood in the context of psychogeographical praxis. ...

in an article for ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper published on Sundays. First published in 1791, it is the world's oldest Sunday newspaper. In 1993 it was acquired by Guardian Media Group Limited, and operated as a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' ...

'', in which he remarked:

I truly believe that there are certain people to whom or through whom the territory, the place, the past speaks. ... Just as it seems possible to me that a street or dwelling can materially affect the character and behaviour of the people who dwell in them, is it not also possible that within this city (London) and within its culture are patterns of sensibility or patterns of response which have persisted from the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and perhaps even beyond?

In the sequence ''London: The Biography'' (2000), ''Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination'' (2002), and ''Thames: Sacred River'' (2007), Ackroyd has produced works of what he considers historical

sociology Sociology is the scientific study of human society that focuses on society, human social behavior, patterns of Interpersonal ties, social relationships, social interaction, and aspects of culture associated with everyday life. The term sociol ...

. These books trace themes in London and English culture from the ancient past to the present, drawing again on his favoured notion of almost spiritual lines of connection rooted in place and stretching across time. His fascination with London literary and artistic figures is also displayed in the sequence of biographies he has produced of

Ezra Pound Ezra Weston Loomis Pound (30 October 1885 – 1 November 1972) was an List of poets from the United States, American poet and critic, a major figure in the early modernist poetry movement, and a Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Ita ...

(1980),

(1984),

(1990),

(1995),

Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, theologian, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...

(1998),

Geoffrey Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...

(2004),

William Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 23 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...

(2005), and

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbu ...

. The city itself stands astride all these works, as it does in the fiction. Ackroyd was forced to think of new methods of biography writing in ''T. S. Eliot'' when he was told he could not quote extensively from Eliot's poetry and unpublished letters. From 2003 to 2005, Ackroyd wrote a six-book non-fiction series (''Voyages Through Time''), intended for readers as young as eight, his first work for children. The critically acclaimed series—described as "Not just sound-bite snacks for short attention spans, but unfolding feasts that leave you with a sense of wonder" by ''

The Sunday Times ''The Sunday Times'' is a British Sunday newspaper whose circulation makes it the largest in Britain's quality press market category. It was founded in 1821 as ''The New Observer''. It is published by Times Newspapers Ltd, a subsidiary of N ...

'' is an extensive narrative of key periods in world history. In a 2012 interview with Matthew Stadlen of the BBC, when asked the question, "Who do you think is the person who has made the biggest impact upon the life of this country ever?", Ackroyd said, "I think William Blake is the most powerful and most significant philosopher or thinker in the course of English history." In the same interview, when asked what fascinates him about London, he said he admired "its power, its majesty, its darkness, its shadows." When asked what he did outside of writing, he said, "I drink, that's about it."

Personal life

Ackroyd had a long-term relationship with Brian Kuhn, an American dancer he met while at Yale. After a nervous breakdown in the late 1980s, Ackroyd moved to

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

with Kuhn. However, Kuhn was then diagnosed with

AIDS The HIV, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) is a retrovirus that attacks the immune system. Without treatment, it can lead to a spectrum of conditions including acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). It is a Preventive healthcare, pr ...

and died in 1994, after which Ackroyd moved back to London. In 1999, he suffered a heart attack and was placed in a medically induced coma for a week. In a 2004 interview, Ackroyd said that he had not been in a relationship since Kuhn's death and was "very happy being

celibate Celibacy (from Latin ''caelibatus'') is the state of voluntarily being unmarried, sexually abstinent, or both. It is often in association with the role of a religious official or devotee. In its narrow sense, the term ''celibacy'' is applied on ...

List of works

Poetry

*1971 ''Ouch!'' *1973 ''London Lickpenny'' *1978 ''Country Life'' *1987 ''The Diversions of Purley and Other Poems''

Fiction

*1982 ''The Great Fire of London'' *1983 '' The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde'' *1985 '' Hawksmoor'' *1987 '' Chatterton'' *1989 ''First Light'' *1992 '' English Music'' *1993 '' The House of Doctor Dee'' *1994 ''

Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem ''Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem'' (published in the United States as ''The Trial of Elizabeth Cree'') is a 1994 novel by the English author Peter Ackroyd. It is a murder mystery framed within a story featuring real historical characters, and ...

'' (also published as ''The Trial of Elizabeth Cree'') *1996 ''Milton in America'' *1999 ''The Plato Papers'' *2003 '' The Clerkenwell Tales'' *2004 ''The Lambs of London'' *2006 ''The Fall of Troy'' *2008 ''The Casebook of Victor Frankenstein'' *2009 ''

The Canterbury Tales ''The Canterbury Tales'' () is a collection of 24 stories written in Middle English by Geoffrey Chaucer between 1387 and 1400. The book presents the tales, which are mostly written in verse, as part of a fictional storytelling contest held ...

– A Retelling'' *2010 '' The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend – A Retelling'' *2013 ''Three Brothers'' *2020 ''Mr Cadmus''

Non-fiction

*1976 ''Notes for a New Culture: An Essay on Modernism'' *1979 ''Dressing Up: Transvestism and Drag, the History of an Obsession'' *1980 ''Ezra Pound and His World'' *1984 ''T. S. Eliot'' *1987 ''Dickens' London: An Imaginative Vision'' *1989 ''Ezra Pound and his World'' *1990 ''Dickens'' *1991 ''Introduction to Dickens'' *1995 ''Blake'' *1998 ''The Life of Thomas More'' *2000 '' London: The Biography'' *2000 ''The Mystery of Charles Dickens'' (biographical one-man show performed by

Simon Callow Simon Phillip Hugh Callow (born 15 June 1949) is an English actor. Known as a character actor on stage and screen, he has received numerous accolades including an Olivier Award and Screen Actors Guild Award as well as nominations for two BAFT ...

) *2001 ''The Collection: Journalism, Reviews, Essays, Short Stories, Lectures'' *2002 ''Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion'' *2002 ''Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination'' *2003 ''The Beginning'' *2003 ''Illustrated London'' *2004 ''Escape From Earth'' *2004 ''Ancient Egypt'' *2004 ''Chaucer'' (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday: Ackroyd's Brief Lives) *2005 ''Shakespeare: The Biography'' *2005 ''Ancient Greece'' *2005 ''Ancient Rome'' *2006 ''J.M.W. Turner'' (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday: Ackroyd's Brief Lives) *2007 ''Thames: Sacred River'' *2008 ''Coffee with Dickens'' (with Paul Schlicke) *2008 ''Newton'' (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday: Ackroyd's Brief Lives) *2008 ''Poe: A Life Cut Short'' (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday: Ackroyd's Brief Lives) *2009 ''Venice: Pure City'' *2010 ''The English Ghost: Spectres Through Time'' *2011 '' London Under'' *2011 ''The History of England, v.1 Foundation'' *2012 ''Wilkie Collins'' (Nan A. Talese, Doubleday: Ackroyd's Brief Lives) *2012 ''The History of England, v.2 Tudors'' *2014 ''The History of England, v.3 Civil War'' (also available as ''Rebellion: The History of England from James I to the Glorious Revolution'') *2014 ''Charlie Chaplin'' *2015 ''Alfred Hitchcock'' *2016 ''The History of England, v.4 Revolution'' *2017 '' Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day'' *2018 ''The History of England, v.5 Dominion'' *2021 ''The History of England, v.6 Innovation'' *2021 ''Introducing Swedenborg'' *2022 ''The Colours of London'' *2023 ''The English Actor: From Medieval to Modern'' *2024 ''The English Soul: Faith of a Nation''

Television

*2002 ''

Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by many as the great ...

'' (

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

) *2004 ''

'' (

) *2006 ''The Romantics'' (

) *2007 ''London Visions'' (

) *2008 ''Peter Ackroyd's Thames'' ( ITV) *2009 ''Peter Ackroyd's Venice'' (

)

Honours and awards

*1984 Fellow of the

*1984 Heinemann Award (joint winner) for ''T. S. Eliot'' *1984 Somerset Maugham Award for ''The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde'' *1984 Whitbread Biography Award for ''T. S. Eliot'' *1985 Guardian Fiction Prize for ''Hawksmoor'' *1985 Whitbread Novel Award for ''Hawksmoor'' *1988

Booker Prize for Fiction The Booker Prize, formerly the Booker Prize for Fiction (1969–2001) and the Man Booker Prize (2002–2019), is a prestigious literary award conferred each year for the best single work of sustained fiction written in the English language, wh ...

– nomination (shortlist) for ''Chatterton'' *1998

James Tait Black Memorial Prize The James Tait Black Memorial Prizes are literary prizes awarded for literature written in the English language. They, along with the Hawthornden Prize, are Britain's oldest literary awards. Based at the University of Edinburgh in Scotland, Un ...

(for biography) for ''The Life of Thomas More'' *2001 South Bank Show Annual Award for Literature for ''London: The Biography'' *2003 British Book Awards Illustrated Book of the Year (''Illustrated London'' shortlisted) *2003

Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...

(CBE) *2006 Foreign Honorary Member of the

American Academy of Arts and Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other ...

*2006 Honorary

Doctor of Letters Doctor of Letters (D.Litt., Litt.D., Latin: ' or '), also termed Doctor of Literature in some countries, is a terminal degree in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. In the United States, at universities such as Drew University, the degree ...

(D.Litt.) from

Brunel University Brunel University of London (BUL) is a public research university located in the Uxbridge area of London, England. It is named after Isambard Kingdom Brunel, a Victorian engineer and pioneer of the Industrial Revolution. It became a university ...

References

Citations

Sources

External links

* * * * * * * Peter Ackroyd Papers. General Collection, Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University. {{DEFAULTSORT:Ackroyd, Peter 1949 births Alumni of Clare College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature English children's writers 20th-century English historians English historical novelists Commanders of the Order of the British Empire Living people Gay poets Gay novelists People educated at St Benedict's School, Ealing People from Acton, London Psychogeographers Chaucer scholars Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences British postmodern writers English gay writers Costa Book Award winners James Tait Black Memorial Prize recipients William Blake scholars 20th-century English novelists 21st-century English novelists Writers from the London Borough of Ealing English LGBTQ poets English LGBTQ novelists 20th-century English biographers 21st-century English biographers Historians of London 21st-century English historians English male short story writers 20th-century English short story writers 21st-century English short story writers English classical scholars English male essayists 20th-century English essayists 21st-century English essayists English magazine editors English male journalists 20th-century English journalists 21st-century English journalists English male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century English dramatists and playwrights 21st-century English dramatists and playwrights Novelists from London Journalists from London Poets from London Writers of historical fiction set in the modern age Writers of historical fiction set in the early modern period Writers of historical fiction set in the Middle Ages Writers of historical fiction set in antiquity English literary historians Yale University fellows The Spectator editors The Times people English radio people Booker Prize winners English television presenters