London Biography

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. 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. A portrait of the capital through its people, streets, habits and ghosts. Peter Ackroyd approaches London not simply as a place with a history, but as a living organism with its own patterns of growth, destruction and renewal. From the time of the Druids to the beginning of the twenty-first century, London moves through the city’s streets and centuries without being confined by a conventional timeline. Its subjects include childhood and suicide, silence and light, drink and Cockney speech, alongside the people, buildings, rituals and obsessions that have repeatedly shaped the capital. The result is history organised around the experience and personality of a place. Ackroyd notices recurrence as much as change, finding older Londons beneath the modern city and showing how particular neighbourhoods, customs and forms of life leave traces long after they appear to have vanished. For readers captivated by London, urban history and the enduring character of place, this sweeping portrait brings the city vividly to life as a character in its own right.