London: The Biography

This book has been criticized for its informal style, its anecdotal quality, and its lack of chronology; yet the title tells us up front that it's not a "history," but a "biography." It treats London as a person best understood through a kind of case history or genealogy. The author has done his homework, but he also goes well beyond the mere facts and dates to listen carefully into the images, motifs, and themes of London's past and present, and this makes the book immensely valuable as a deeper-than-usual resource into the "soul" of a place the author obviously loves despite its shadows and ugly spots.

How can one read a book of almost 800 pages in the midst of a busy life? This question is daunting to many readers.As a Londoner permanently fascinated by my birthplace I started this immense read by dipping into aspects that first interested me, because the contents are conveniently arranged by subject area (theatre, architecture, etc.). Then I expanded my interests until, finally, I had read it all--at least at a superficial level. Only repeated readings will enable the reader to assimilate it as part of an individual intellectual landscape and memory. This is a veritable 'groaning board' of data.Peter Ackroyd's scholarship is meticulous and results in a work of dense information matched by high levels of entertainment--he is an excellent writer. However well one might know individual aspects of London, there are constant surprises and insights that engage the curious reader.This is not a tourist guide book, quite unlike the various 'London walks' offerings that are frequently delightful and helpful, but is the Ackroyd's attempt to explain the mystery of London over the centuries. It is a tribute to the immense effort he put into this work that it works well at many levels. His 'Essay on Sources' with which he closes the book is itself a mine of information and will send many readers scurrying to the bookshelf or library for further exploration.For anyone with a love of London, this is essential reading.

I read this on Michael Moorcock's recommendation. Moorcock is the acknowledged father of the London antimodernists (a kind of 21st century PreRaphaelite literary movement associated with a fascination for ancient stories, popular culture and literary experiment). He has frequently praised Mr Ackroyd's biographies. Dickens, one of Ackroyd's first biographies, was a revelation to me and his Blake was the most remarkable exercise of its kind. While Ackroyd lacks the reputation for experiment shared by his colleagues Iain Sinclair (of Downriver and Lights Out For The City) and Michael Moorcock (King of the City, London Bone and Mother London) he is actually a rather clever subversive, presenting a highly idiosyncratic image of his native city which, like the images of Dickens and Conan Doyle, takes us over. Ackroyd's vision of London becomes more real than the reality.It is certainly more valid than most realities tourists experience on their brief skim across this ancient, beautiful, ugly, cruel, humane city where so much of our history begins. This is an outstanding book. It has warmth, enthusiasm. It informs on more than one level. I have fallen in love with it!

Everyone can tell stories about their hometown and anecdotes about the place they grew up, some of which are true, some of which are dubious, and some of which are outright fabrications. I can tell you stories about my small hometown in Massachusetts which can alternately put you to sleep or amuse you. Imagine someone telling you stories about London; stories which over 2000 years have been embellished and polished to the point where they might be considered mythology. Consider these stories ranging over the whole course of the city's life, and you have some idea of what this book is like. It is a breathtaking book, where anecdotes of Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, The Victorian Era, and today are all seamlessly mixed in a wonderful stew. I cannot imagine the amount of scholarship that went into this work; I rather think that Mr. Ackroyd is some type of immortal who has experienced these stories and anecdotes of London firsthand. This is a truly wonderful book to give to any Anglophile friends you may have; it is history at its compelling best, long on anecdote and short on drudgery. It is also written extremely well; there is never a jarring turn of phrase in the book. Well worth the hardbound price, this is the perfect Christmas present to anyone you know who has lived in London, been to London, or who loves history.