'It's the great general drama of human spirit'

 

“It may seem unfashionable to say so, but historians should seize the imagination as well as the intellect. History is, in a sense, a story, a narrative of adventure and of vision, of character and of incident. It is also a portrait of the great general drama of the human spirit.” – Peter Ackroyd

 

Born in London on Oct. 5, 1949 Ackroyd is a biographer, novelist and historian who has authored award-winning pieces on such luminaries as William Blake, Charles Dickens, T.S. Eliot and Charlie Chaplin.  He’s also earned The Somerset Maugham Award for The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, and Whitbread Awards for T.S. Eliot and the novel Hawksmoor.   His novel Chatterton was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

 

A seemingly tireless writer, Ackroyd has authored 42 nonfiction books; 19 novels and 4 books of poetry, including 2025's Forgotten London: Exploring the Hidden Life of the City and this year’s Auden, a biography on the British-American poet.    Ackroyd’s first novel was 1982’s The Great Fire of London, a reworking of Dickens’ Little Dorrit.  It not only put him on the writing map but set the stage for a writing style that showcases what he calls "the spirit of place.” 

  

“I don’t think I ever read a novel until I was 26 or 27.   I wanted to be a poet … (and) had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history.  But those three elements in my life," he said, "have become the most important.”