Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd's The Life of Thomas More is a masterful reconstruction of the life and imagination of one of the most remarkable figures of history. Thomas More (1478-1535) was a renowned statesman; the author of a political fantasy that gave a name to a literary genre and a worldview (Utopia); and, most famously, a …

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 Great Fire of London is a novel by the English author Peter Ackroyd. Published in 1982, it is Ackroyd's first novel. It established themes which Ackroyd returns to again and again in his fiction: London, English literature and the intertwining of literary, historical and contemporary events.