London

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.'

ISBN 0099422581   Pages 848 ISBN13 9780099422587 (What's this?)   Weight (grammes) 1128 Publisher Vintage   Published in London Imprint Vintage   Previous ISBN 9780749386450 Format Paperback   Height (mm) 231 Publication date 04 Aug 2001   Width (mm) 153 Reissue date 21 Aug 2008   Spine width (mm) 51 DEWEY 942.1   Academic level General DEWEY edition DC21   Alternative ISBN 9781856867979

"Fizzles with vitality and originality" -- "Sunday Times""Marvellous - "the" book about London." -- "Daily Mail""Peter Ackroyd was born to write the biography of London...A brilliant book." -- "Sunday Telegraph"

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