Peter Ackroyd

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12 Novels Considered the “Greatest Book Ever Written”

Britannica's Book Bingo. Take our reading challenge! Books range form greatest, banned, and counterculture.

Britannica’s Book Bingo

Abergavenny, Monmouthshire, Wales.

10 Captivating Contemporary Novels Set in the British Isles

Girl Reading On Turquoise Couch

9 American Countercultural Books

Discover

The Lost Colony of Roanoke, North Carolina, where 115 people mysteriously disappeared c. 1590. John White discovers the word Croatoan carved onto a tree upon his return to the deserted Roanoke Colony in 1590

The Lost Colony of Roanoke

Vietnam War. U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson awards the Distinguished Service Cross to First Lieutenant Marty A. Hammer, during a visit to military personnel, Cam Ranh Bay, South Vietnam, October 26, 1966. President Johnson

Vietnam War Timeline

African Americans demonstrating for voting rights in front of the White House as police and others watch, March 12, 1965. One sign reads, "We demand the right to vote everywhere." Voting Rights Act, civil rights.

Timeline of the American Civil Rights Movement

Remarkable new details of Pluto's largest moon Charon are revealed in this image from New Horizons' Long Range Reconnaissance Imager (LORRI), taken late on July 13, 2015 from a distance of 289,000 miles

Why Is Pluto No Longer a Planet?

Horses. Equus caballus. Horse stable. A brown horse looks out from his stall through the window.

Horsing Around: 7 of the Weirdest Racehorse Names in History

Ice Sledge Hockey, Hockey Canada Cup, USA (left) vs Canada, 2009. UBC Thunderbird Arena, Vancouver, BC, competition site for Olympic ice hockey and Paralympic ice sledge hockey. Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, Vancouver Olympics

10 Best Hockey Players of All Time

bird. mourning dove. pigeon and dove. Mourning Dove (Zenaida macroura) family Columbidae.

Nikola Tesla's Weird Obsession with Pigeons

Peter Ackroyd: Facts & Related Content

Written and fact-checked by The Information Architects of Encyclopaedia Britannica

News •

Christopher Sinclair-Stevenson obituary • Feb. 4, 2025, 1:57 AM ET (The Guardian)

Facts

Born	London • England
Awards And Honors	Costa Book Awards (1985) • Prix Goncourt (1985) • Costa Book Awards (1984)
Notable Works	“Chatterton” • “English Music” • “First Light” • “Hawksmoor” • “Mr. Cadmus” • “The Fall of Troy” • “The Great Fire of London” • “The House of Doctor Dee” • “The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde” • “The Trial of Elizabeth Cree: A Novel of the Limehouse Murders” • “Three Brothers”

Andrew Motion

British poet and author

Sir Stephen Spender

English poet

A.N. Wilson

English writer

Samuel Johnson

Samuel Johnson

English author

Steele, detail of an oil painting by Sir Godfrey Kneller, 1711; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Sir Richard Steele

British author and politician

Arthur Young

English writer

Novelist Muriel Spark

Muriel Spark

British writer

Charles Dickens

Charles Dickens

British novelist

Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf

British writer

Southey, detail of a pencil and watercolour portrait by R. Hancock, 1796; in the National Portrait Gallery, London

Robert Southey

English author

Nancy Mitford, 1970.

Nancy Mitford

British writer

Philip Larkin

British poet

Zadie Smith

Zadie Smith

British author

Jeanette Winterson

British author

John Wain

British critic and writer

Martin Amis

Martin Amis

British author

J.R. Ackerley

British writer and editor

V.S. Pritchett

British writer

Maurice Baring

British author

Salman Rushdie, 2008

Salman Rushdie

British-American writer