Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd is an English biographer and novelist who has always been fascinated with the culture and history of the city of London. Born in East Acton, London, Ackroyd was an avid reader from a young age and wrote his first play at the age of nine. His mother worked in the personnel department of an engineering firm, and his father had left the family home when Ackroyd was a baby. Ackroyd was educated at St. Benedict's, Ealing and at Clare College, Cambridge, where he graduated with a double first in English. In 1972, he was a Mellon Fellow at Yale University in the United States, which resulted in the publication of his first book, "Notes for a New Culture".

Ackroyd's literary career began with poetry, but he later moved into fiction and has become an acclaimed author, winning the 1998 James Tait Black Memorial Prize for the biography "Thomas More" and being shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1987. He has a particular interest in the history and culture of London, and one of his best-known works is "London: The Biography," an extensive and thorough discussion of London through the ages. Ackroyd has also produced a six-book non-fiction series, "Voyages Through Time," intended for readers as young as eight. He has been nominated a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003.