Albion: The Origins of the English Imagination - Hardcover

Peter Ackroyd

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385497725 ISBN 13: 9780385497725

Publisher: Doubleday, 2003

Synopsis

Offers an interpretation of English culture from its origins in the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, demonstrating the quintessentially English quality of literature, music, painting, architecture, science, and philosophy.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Ackroyd is a bestselling writer of both fiction and nonfiction. His most recent books include the biographies <b>Dickens, Blake</b><i>, </i>and <b>Thomas More</b><i> </i>and the novels <b>The Trial of Elizabeth Cree, Milton in America</b><i>, </i>and <b>The Plato Papers</b><i>. </i>He has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature’s William Heinemann Award (jointly), the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, and <i>The Guardian</i> fiction prize. He lives in London.<br><br><br><i>From the Trade Paperback edition.</i>

From the Inside Flap

<p>Peter Ackroyd follows his acclaimed <i>London: The Biography</i> with a book that once again plumbs the history of England and uncovers the continuities that link past and present. A dazzling, highly original exploration of English culture from its roots in the Anglo-Saxon period to the present day, ALBION demonstrates that a quintessentially English quality imbues every form of cultural expression—not just literature, but also painting, music, architecture, philosophy, and science.<br><br>In an intricate, expertly crafted mixture of narrative and theme, Ackroyd travels through time and across cultural categories as he seeks out the roots and the essence of the English imagination. With an irrepressible curiosity and contagious enthusiasm, he moves from <i>Beowulf</i> to Virginia Woolf, Hogarth to Hockney, Purcell to Vaughan Williams, Inigo Jones to Edward Lutyens. His lively biographical sketches and incisive exegeses of the work of figures both well known and less familiar deepen our understanding and appreciation of our inherited culture. Like <i>London: The Biography</i>, ALBION contains unexpected treasures, including a thought-provoking look at immigration and assimilation and a delightful digression into the English obsession with gardening. Black-and-white photographs and drawings, and two lavish four-color inserts add visual appeal throughout. <br><br>Ackroyd’s talent for distilling information and presenting it with novelistic flair shines on every page of ALBION. It is Peter Ackroyd at his most brilliant and exuberant.</p>

Edition details

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0385497725
• ISBN 13: 9780385497725
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 524