2001 Random House jumbo trade paperback, 4th printing. ISBN:9780099422587. Peter Ackroyd (London Under: The Secret History Beneath the Streets ). Classic treasure trove of stories about the city of London's ups &amp; downs from the last 2000 years.

London: The Biography

Peter, Ackroyd

Biographies & Memoirs

Vintage

Charles Dickens's life is a story of rags to riches, complete with bankruptcy, prison, forced child labour, and fame and fortune overshadowed by guilt and secrecy - rather like the plot of one of his novels. Indeed, Dickens drew strongly on his own experiences as the source for much of his fiction. Here the author offers a fresh view of Dickens's remarkable life story. Dickens's novels brim with references: they are located in the places he lived in and visited, peopled with characters he knew, and inspired by the preoccupations that haunted his mind. Ackroyd highlights the reality of Victorian life, warts and all, and the issues that sparked Dickens's fervent calls for social reform; and he also charts the influential landmarks of that era, such as the coming of the railways, the effects upon society of the industrial revolution and the expansion of the British Empire. Dickens was a complex personality. He apparently had everything - fame, success, wealth - but he died harbouring the great sadness he had carried with him all his life, and he was humble enough to forbid a grand funeral. Like many eminent Victorians, he led a double life. Although he insisted that nothing in the newspapers he edited should offend his middle-class readers, he regularly indulged in dubious night-time escapades with fellow-author Wilkie Collins and, for the final 13 years of his life, kept a secret mistress, Ellen Ternan.

DICKENS (ABRIDGED)

VINTAGE (RAND)

In a fictionalized autobiography, the controversial British writer considers the accomplishments and misfortunes of his life

The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde

Literature & Fiction

Contemporary

Penguin Books, Ltd.

This novel centres on the famous 16th-century alchemist and astrologer John Dee. Reputedly a black magician, he was imprisoned by Queen Mary for allegedly attempting to kill her through sorcery. When Matthew Palmer inherits an old house in Clerkenwell, he feels that he has become part of its past.

The House of Doctor Dee

Penguin

This is an immortal story of chivalry, treachery and death told anew for our times. The legend of King Arthur has retained its appeal and popularity through the ages: Mordred's treason, the knightly exploits of Tristan, Lancelot's fatally divided loyalties and his love for Guenevere, the quest for the Holy Grail. Now retold by Peter Ackroyd with his signature clarity, charm and relish for a good story, the result is not only one of the most readable accounts of the knights of the Round Table but also one of the most moving.

The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend

Dramas & Plays

Penguin??Books

The fourth volume of Peter Ackroyds epic History of England begins in 1688 with a revolution and ends in 1815 with a victory. Against a vivid backdrop of coffee houses and playhouses, it charts the creation of those pillars of modern Britain, the Bank of England and the Stock Exchange, the rise of newspapers, the birth of the novel, and the technological developments that transformed England from a land of green fields to one of iron and coal.

Revolution: A History of England Volume IV (The History of England)

History

Military

Macmillan

[Read by Clive Chafer] Peter Ackroyd, one of Britain's most acclaimed writers, brings the age of the Tudors to vivid life in this monumental book in his ''History of England'' series, 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 royal 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.

Tudors: Volume II

Europe

The author, one of President Tito's closest aids, recounts the political history of Yugoslavia following World War II, and describes his own career and eventual ten-year imprisonment

T. S. Eliot (Abacus Books)

Abacus / Sphere

London : The Biography

Doubleday Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Peter, Ackroyd. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Peter, Ackroyd

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Peter, Ackroyd. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

London: The Biography

DICKENS (ABRIDGED)

The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde

The House of Doctor Dee

The House of Doctor Dee

The Death of King Arthur: The Immortal Legend

Revolution: A History of England Volume IV (The History of England)

Tudors: Volume II

T. S. Eliot (Abacus Books)

London : The Biography