The Collection - Softcover

Ackroyd, Peter

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099428946 ISBN 13: 9780099428947

Publisher: Vintage, 2002

Synopsis

During the 1970s and the early 1980s Peter Ackroyd wrote countless book reviews and articles for the "Spectator", on literature, film and a number of social and cultural issues. "The Collection" offers a selection of these incisive and entertaining pieces, which established Ackroyd's reputation as a writer. Since 1986, Ackroyd has been chief book reviewer for "The Times", and in this capacity he has reviewed some of the most important biographies and novels published over the last fifteen years. A selection of his "Time" reviews are included here. These reviews, and his articles for the "Sunday Times" display his characteristic attitudes to literature and art. They also throw interesting lights on his won work as a prize winning novelist and biographer. "The Collection" also contains a number of Ackroyd's interesting and provocative lectures on The Englishness of English literature, London Luminaries and Cockney Visionaries and William Black, a Spiritual Radical. In addition, several essays on subjects such as Ackroyd's own writing and contemporary painters such as Frank Auerbach have been included. Finally, three of Ackroyd's short stories have been reproduced, one of which was his first published work of fiction. "The Collection" is a revealing and fascinating anthology of Ackroyd's ideas and preoccupations. As such, it is the ideal companion volume to his novels and biographies. With the exception of five pieces, none of the writing contained in this volume has ever been collected: The Collection also contains much previously unpublished material.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Ackroyd's masterpiece London- The Biography was published in 2000, to critical acclaim and commercial success. His novels include Hawksmoor, Chatterton, Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem and, most recently, The Plato Papers.

From the Inside Flap

g anthology of journalism, lectures, short stories and miscellaneous writings by the author of London: the Biography; edited by Thomas Wright.<br><br>During the 1970s and early 1980s Peter Ackroyd wrote countless book reviews and articles for the <i>Spectator</i> on <br>literature, film and a number of social issues. <b>The Collection</b> offers a selection of these incisive and witty pieces. In them, Ackroyd first explored the ideas that he would later develop in his novels and biographies. The articles from various publications in the 1980s and 1990s also throw interesting light on Ackroyd’s books and reveal his attitudes to <br>literature and art. Included here are long pieces on Walter Pater and William Morris, as well as lectures on the Englishness of English literature, Blake and radicalism, and the nature of time. <b>The Collection</b> also contains articles on the work of contemporary painters and much previously unpublished material. The short stories in th

Edition details

• Publisher: Vintage
• Publication date: 2002
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0099428946
• ISBN 13: 9780099428947
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 496