London: The Biography

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Peter Ackroyd

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Pages: 880 (Paperback)

ISBN: 0099422581

Pub: Vintage

Pub date: 2001-09-06

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 2944

Editorial 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

Reader Reviews:

Love it or hate it... (2/2 people found this helpful)

Whether you love London or hate London, you have to admit that it has been a world-important city for centuries, perhaps millenia. Living in the place it is very easy to actually love and hate it at the same time. The detailed and well-researched book by Peter Ackroyd decribes the highs and lows of London from pre-history to 2000. The writer's strong and accessible style brings the city to life to the extent that one can almost hear it and smell it. Only one very minor quibble about people moving to the United States after the Great Fire - over a century before there was a United States - calling it the American Colonies would have been better. But that should not detract from Ackroyd's description of a city that was almost a country within a country for much of its history, and in some ways perhaps still is.

fascinating (3/4 people found this helpful)

very interesting, full of little known anecdotes about different aspects of the city and life in London through the ages. Often very funny as well..just couldnt put it down!

Wonderful, quirky and engrossing (2/3 people found this helpful)

A rambling, roller coaster of a book, which in some cases might be a minus point, but in this case seems to go with the sprawling nature and long history of the city. A great thought provoking read.

re Ackroyd (12/14 people found this helpful)

Those who have expressed the strongest criticism of this work are, I suspect, historians (particularly social historians) or, if they are 'literary' readers, they read from a perspective influenced by social theory and cultural studies. The latter is a common mode of reading in current academic circles; one that Ackroyd is well known to dislike, so it is unsurprising that they do not care for his work. Anyone seeking to understand Ackroyd's views as a literary critic should try his 'Notes For a New Culture' and this might help those who are confused or disappointed by his style and method. Actually I am surprised that so many people are arguing about this work as a 'history' - it is not a history but a piece of literature, as its title self-consciously suggests, and if one follows Ackroyd's belief then there need be no relation between the two types of text - for him they operate in entirely separate spheres.

Ackroyd subtitled 'Albion' as 'The Origins of the English Imagination,' and he is likewise here concerned with the London imagination - and imagination is neither reality nor the concern of social realists.

A history lesson and funny little stories (11/12 people found this helpful)

Don't be put of by the size of this book - it is full of fantastic information. Calling it the 'Biography' is right - it seems like Ackroyd holds some sort of dear love for the city. You might expect it to be a heavy going, scholarly chronicle, but this simply isn't the case. In between information and facts there are juicy (and often funny) little stories about people that lived in London. Little stories like court cases over stolen pigs, mad drinkers, priests, prophets, poets and people ran out of the town as it was believed they were cursed. Well worth reading if London has any impact in your life.

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