A gripping short biography of the extraordinary Wilkie Collins, author ofThe Moonstone and The Woman in White, two early masterpieces of mystery and detection.

Short and oddly built, with a head too big for his body, extremely near-sighted, unable to stay still, dressed in colorful clothes, Wilkie Collins looked distinctly strange. But he was nonetheless a charmer, befriended by the great, loved by children, irresistibly attractive to women—and avidly read by generations of readers. Peter Ackroyd follows his hero, "the sweetest-tempered of all the Victorian novelists," from his childhood as the son of a well-known artist to his struggling beginnings as a writer, his years of fame and his lifelong friendship with the other great London chronicler, Charles Dickens. As well as his enduring masterpieces,The Moonstone—often called the first true detective novel—and the sensationalThe Woman in White, he produced an intriguing array of lesser known works. Told with Ackroyd's inimitable verve, this is a ravishingly entertaining life of a great storyteller, full of surprises, rich in humor and sympathetic understanding.

A chronicle of the English Reformation, the making of the Anglican Church, and the age of the Tudors follows Henry VIII's relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir, the brief reign of teenage king Edward VI, and the long reign of Elizabeth I.

A chronicle of the English Reformation, the making of the Anglican Church, and the age of the Tudors follows Henry VIII's relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir, the brief reign of teenage king Edward VI, and the long reign of Elizabeth I.

The first entry in a six-volume epic traces the birth of England, documenting the region's primeval origins through the death of Henry VII and covering the construction of Stonehenge, the establishment of common law, and the roles of successive invasions.

The first entry in a six-volume epic traces the birth of England, documenting the region's primeval origins through the death of Henry VII and covering the construction of Stonehenge, the establishment of common law, and the roles of successive invasions.

Martin Chuzzlewit is a comic masterpiece which courted controversy on publication with its scathing portrayal of nineteenth-century America.

Wealthy old Martin Chuzzlewit is surrounded by a host of grasping, unscrupulous relatives and suspects the family vices of selfishness and greed are already showing in his grandson. The younger Martin is therefore cast out upon the world to learn to fend for himself. Apprenticed to the oily hypocrite Peckniff, he meets both the sweet-tempered Tom Pinch and the irrepressible Mark Tapley, with whom he sets forth to America to find his fortune.

Dickens created some of his most gleefully repulsive and enduring characters in this tale of corruption and virtue, murder and unrequited love.


From the Trade Paperback edition.

A brief yet definitive new biography of one of film's greatest legends: perfect for readers who want to know more about the iconic star but who don't want to commit to a lengthy work.

He was the very first icon of the silver screen and is one of the most recognizable of Hollywood faces, even a hundred years after his first film. But what of the man behind the moustache? Peter Ackroyd's new biography turns the spotlight on Chaplin's life as well as his work, from his humble theatrical beginnings in music halls to winning an honorary Academy Award. Everything is here, from the glamor of his golden age to the murky scandals of the 1940s and eventual exile to Switzerland. There are charming anecdotes along the way: playing the violin in a New York hotel room to mask the sound of Stan Laurel frying pork chops and long Hollywood lunches with Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks Jr. This masterful brief biography offers fresh revelations about one of the most familiar faces of the last century and brings the Little Tramp vividly to life.

Peter Ackroyd has been praised as one of the greatest living chroniclers of Britain and its people. In Rebellion, he continues his dazzling account of the history of England, beginning the progress south of the Scottish king, James VI, who on the death of Elizabeth I became the first Stuart king of England, and ending with the deposition and flight into exile of his grandson, James II.

The Stuart monarchy brought together the two nations of England and Scotland into one realm, albeit a realm still marked by political divisions that echo to this day. More importantly, perhaps, the Stuart era was marked by the cruel depredations of civil war, and the killing of a king. Shrewd and opinionated, James I was eloquent on matters as diverse as theology, witchcraft, and the abuses of tobacco, but his attitude to the English parliament sowed the seeds of the division that would split the country during the reign of his hapless heir, Charles I. Ackroyd offers a brilliant, warts-and-all portrayal of Charles’s nemesis, Oliver Cromwell, Parliament’s great military leader and England’s only dictator, who began his career as a political liberator but ended it as much of a despot as 'that man of blood,' the king he executed.

England’s turbulent seventeenth century is vividly laid out before us, but so too is the cultural and social life of the period, notable for its extraordinarily rich literature, including Shakespeare’s late masterpieces, Jacobean tragedy, the poetry of John Donne and Milton and Thomas Hobbes’s great philosophical treatise, Leviathan. In addition to its account of England's royalty, Rebellion also gives us a very real sense of the lives of ordinary English men and women, lived out against a backdrop of constant disruption and uncertainty.

Peter Ackroyd, one of Britain’s most acclaimed writers, brings the age of the Tudors to vivid life in this monumental book. Tudors is the story of Henry VIII’s relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir; of how the brief reign of the teenage king, Edward VI, gave way to the violent reimposition of Catholicism and the stench of bonfires under 'Bloody Mary.' It tells, too, of the long reign of Elizabeth I, which, though marked by civil strife, plots against her, and even an invasion force, finally brought stability.

Above all, it is the story of the English Reformation and the making of the Anglican Church. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, England was still largely feudal and looked to Rome for direction; at its end, it was a country where good governance was the duty of the state, not the church, and where men and women began to look to themselves for answers rather than to those who ruled them.

In questa biografia d'autore dedicata al grande regista, attore e sceneggiatore inglese, Ackroyd svela l'uomo celato dietro il mito di Chaplin. Dalle scorribande nei bassifondi della capitale inglese - dove il piccolo Charlie ballava fuori dai pub per guadagnare pochi pence - all'esperienza nel circo, dal turbolento rapporto con la madre Hannah alle prime esibizioni nei music-hall, fino all'ingresso e alla consacrazione nel mondo del cinema e all'accanimento delle autorità americane contro le sue presunte simpatie comuniste, l'autore traccia la genesi di una storia individuale che, dipanandosi tra Ottocento e Novecento, dialoga con la grande Storia. Grazie a inediti retroscena della sua vita privata (quattro mogli, undici figli e uno sterminato numero di amanti) e attraverso continui rimandi ai suoi capolavori, emergono il maniacale stacanovismo e la complessità di Charlie, al tempo stesso brillante e crudele, acuto e compulsivo, tenero e geloso, premuroso e feroce, ossessionato dalle donne e dalla sete di successo. Se Chaplin era solito dipingersi come un personaggio a metà tra il santo e l'eroe, questo libro svela al contrario un uomo e un artista dalle mille contraddizioni. Dietro l'apparente dolcezza dell'icona Charlot - protagonista del 'Monello', del 'Vagabondo', di 'Tempi moderni' e tanti altri film e cortometraggi - si celano le mille sfaccettature del suo visionario e geniale demiurgo.

Rapier-sharp, witty, intriguing, and mysterious: a new novel from Peter Ackroyd set in the London of the 1960s.

Three Brothers follows the fortunes of Harry, Daniel, and Sam Hanway, a trio of brothers born on a postwar council estate in Camden Town. Marked from the start by curious coincidence, each boy is forced to make his own way in the world—a world of dodgy deals and big business, of criminal gangs and crooked landlords, of newspaper magnates, backbiters, and petty thieves.
London is the backdrop and the connecting fabric of these three lives, reinforcing Ackroyd's grand theme that place and history create, surround and engulf us. From bustling, cut-throat Fleet Street to hallowed London publishing houses, from the wealth and corruption of Chelsea to the smoky shadows of Limehouse and Hackney, this is an exploration of the city, peering down its streets, riding on its underground, and drinking in its pubs and clubs. Everything is possible—not only in the new freedom of the 1960s but also in London's timeless past.

C'è una città dove l'aria è calda anche d'inverno. Dove il buio è più nero della pece. 'Una terra proibita' e sconosciuta in cui centinaia di gallerie, anfratti e cunicoli si chiudono improvvisamente in vicoli ciechi, costringendo i visitatori a tornare indietro. Qualcuno dice che, tra quei fiumi caliginosi e antichi, abitino solo ratti, cani randagi e vagabondi. Altri, più impressionabili, vecchi assassini sfuggiti alla giustizia e Cerberi che non hanno mai visto la luce del sole. Dove si trova questa città? Più o meno trenta metri sotto Londra. Con l'equilibrata commistione di ricostruzione storica e talento immaginativo, Peter Ackroyd veste nuovamente i panni dell'esploratore e, come un novello e scanzonato Jules Verne, si cala nei sotterranei della capitale inglese. Visita il congegno idraulico che trasportava i cadaveri dal cimitero di Kensal Green alle catacombe sottostanti. Spalanca la porta sul piedistallo della statua di Boadicea, sul Ponte di Westminster, e discende lungo un enorme tunnel pieno di cavi elettrici. Passeggiare nei sotterranei di Londra, per Ackroyd, significa attraversare la Storia e recuperare un passato 'che esiste ancora e accompagna la nostra vita presente'. Per questo non si ferma al London Basin, il letto di sabbia e rocce risalente al Paleozoico su cui poggia la città; o alla strada dell'Età del bronzo che si snoda sotto Isle of Dogs e alle tombe anglosassoni, a pochi metri dalla navata centrale di St Paul's Cathedral...

Peter Ackroyd, one of Britain’s most acclaimed writers, brings the age of the Tudors to vivid life in his monumental History of England, charting the course of English history from Henry VIII’s cataclysmic break with Rome to the epic rule of Elizabeth I.

Rich in detail and atmosphere, Tudors is the story of Henry VIII’s relentless pursuit of both the perfect wife and the perfect heir; of how the brief reign of the teenage king, Edward VI, gave way to the violent reimposition of Catholicism and the stench of bonfires under “Bloody Mary.” It tells, too, of the long reign of Elizabeth I, which, though marked by civil strife, plots against her, and even an invasion force, finally brought stability.

Above all, it is the story of the English Reformation and the making of the Anglican Church. At the beginning of the sixteenth century, England was still largely feudal and looked to Rome for direction; at its end, it was a country where good governance was the duty of the state, not the church, and where men and women began to look to themselves for answers rather than to those who ruled them.