Peter Ackroyd

1949–

English novelist, biographer and critic whose work centres on the history and culture of London. Raised in East Acton, he studied English at Clare College, Cambridge, and was literary editor of The Spectator before becoming chief book reviewer for The Times. His first novel, The Great Fire of London (1982), was followed by Hawksmoor, winner of the Whitbread Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize. His biographies include lives of Dickens, Blake and T. S. Eliot. Chatterton, which reimagines the death of the eighteenth-century poet Thomas Chatterton, was shortlisted for the 1987 Booker Prize.

Timeline of Peter Ackroyd’s life

Works

• Chatterton (1987)

Prizes

• Chatterton — The Booker Prize 1987: Shortlist