Peter Ackroyd

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not london the biography, but his fiction books. how do they compare to iain sinclairs? (with who he is often bracketed). i heard not that well, that the fiction falls short in comparison.

― gareth, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(although what is London: The Biography like, anyhow? worth the amount of time invested?)

― clive, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

i liked london: it is full of mark s-style anecdotes (suxh as the fact that there is building somewhere in west london where you go down to the basement and lift a trapdoor, and underneath is running water, but no one knows what the watercourse is that provides this water)

― mark s, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Touch and go. Some of them are utter pish, with the same sort of rambling digression and hinting and allusion that never makes it into a story of any kind of nature... (House of Doctor Dee) That was the first one that I read, and I nearly didn't read any others (which would have been a pity.)

And then others of them are utterly brilliant. I'd especially reccomend Hawksmoore, which manages to make the same brilliant cross-time cross sections connections across London life through the centuries. The Limehouse Golem one was also fantastic, and the Oscar Wilde one was so brilliant I often forgot I was reading a work of fiction.

― kate, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I read his English Music (no, it's a novel) a young boy has dreams where he meets all kinds of Classic Englishmen (the white rabbit amongst others), parts of which are written in the style of that particular Classic Englishmen...I also read his Oscar Wilde fictional diary, written much in the same vein. it's more clever than witty.

(peter greenawayish and not momusish)

― erik, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(kate have you still got my satan book?) (i only just remembered abt it)

― mark s, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

(blimey, I remember bagsying the next borrow of that book a year ago)

― RickyT, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I think Ackroyd may be the only really well regarded current writer who I find completely unreadable. I loathe his prose. He might well be great otherwise, but I find him intolerable.

― Martin Skidmore, Monday, 1 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Damn, I could have sworn I returned said book about 3 or 4 moves ago, but I will have a look. My entire life is in boxes under my bed, so it might well be there.

― kate, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

not to me, kate! by all means pass it on to rickyt tho

― mark s, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

Ah, so now I have a quest, something to do with the day to stop myself going mad. I shall tidy my room, look through all the scary boxes and try to find this book. Finally, a reason for living. Or at least a reason to procrastinate looking for a real job. Thanks, Mark!

― kate, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I read Ackroyd's 'Hawksmoor' years ago and, more recently, Sinclair's 'Lud Heat' which inspired it. Hawksmoor sticks in my memory as being both a brilliantly atmospheric ghost story and a truly inspirational piece of architectural conjecture. I was studying architecture at the time, so I suppose that helped to make it one of my favourite books to date. On the other hand, I still haven't managed to finish 'Lud Heat'. I'm not implying criticism by saying this: it's just an intense, abstract piece of writing. And it's Sinclair who is to be credited with creating or, as he would probably have it, unearthing, all the spooky theories which can be so enjoyably considered whilst strolling 'round London.

― Gordon, Tuesday, 2 July 2002 00:00 (twenty-two years ago)

one year passes...

the fundamental problem with "Hawksmoor" is that it has no ending. All the stuff about the MONSTERS in the churches is really scary, but there is no resolution.

not calling the architect by his actual name is annoying.

― DV (dirtyvicar), Thursday, 27 November 2003 12:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I quite like Ackroyd, I found Chatterton genuinely moving (though Ackroyd has a problem prevalent in all English male writers in his inability to get the "Monstrous old woman" to be anything other than gortesque caracature) Then again I am a middle-class liberal who always plays safe, so what do I know?

― Matt (Matt), Thursday, 27 November 2003 13:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Ha ha, I still have the Satan book, even though RickyT still asks me about it every time I talk to him...

I read English Music recently and was somewhat disappointed with it. I can't quite put my finger on why, but HSA actually shouted at it, but that's only cause he only read the Hogarth chapter and shouted about the plagiarism of Hogarth.

Great premise - clairivoyant boy has visions of English History - but poor execution.

I still want The Clerkenwell Tales, though.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Thursday, 27 November 2003 13:46 (twenty-one years ago)

I still want The Clerkenwell Tales, though.

I read that recently -- v. enjoyable.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 November 2003 20:28 (twenty-one years ago)

GIVE THE SATAN BOOK TO RICKYT KATE!

*calls up demons to kick kate's ass*

― mark s (mark s), Thursday, 27 November 2003 20:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Fiery!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 27 November 2003 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Jeez, Mark! The book has been burried in a box for a year now! This box is at the very back of the storeroom (read: the spare bathroom) under a load of old junk (read: part of HSA's art) and I won't be able to get it out again until HSA gets organazised (read: has another installation).

One day! Before the second coming and the ravaging of hell! Honest!

― Citizen Kate (kate), Friday, 28 November 2003 08:58 (twenty-one years ago)

I've read English music, The Last testament of Oscar Wilde, Hawksmoor and several of the biogs. Dickens, Eliot +Blake. This is definitely his area of expertise (prob. why he called it 'London: The Biography). Blake is the best one but then i'm fascinated by the subject. Has anyone read 'Albion'? I've hesitated buying it because it could be a load of nonesense. Can anyone advise?

― Pete S, Friday, 28 November 2003 12:03 (twenty-one years ago)

demons once invoked cannot be denied, only diverted (cf the casting of the runes)

http://www.asta.uni-essen.de/kinoseminar/texte/dornheim_horror/Demon.jpg

― mark s (mark s), Friday, 28 November 2003 12:18 (twenty-one years ago)

Apparently he is quiet a smelly man.

― Pete (Pete), Friday, 28 November 2003 12:20 (twenty-one years ago)

I have read about 1/3 of "Albion" and it's written in a similar style to "London" but with much less focus. The ideas he has, vague enough when he uses solid examples to back them up, seem even flimsier and more transient. It's less immersive, and while I loved "London" in part because I, um, love London, my attitude towards language and imagination is far more abstract and less to do with affection or interest.

If you like how he writes, read it, but if you want the meaty, emotive stories, hmm, I dunno.

― Markelby (Mark C), Friday, 28 November 2003 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Well, divert the demon to cleaning out the spare room, especially heavy boxes of books which make my back go CRUNCH and make me spend the next week in agony.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Friday, 28 November 2003 12:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I think on balance i will/won't read it then....

― Pete S, Friday, 28 November 2003 12:55 (twenty-one years ago)

what y'all think of Iain Sinclair, then? I've got three of his books and they're just fucking impenetrable. Or maybe I just need to be locked into a room with a comfy chair and soft music and no other distractions.
Every time I try to get back into White Chappel, Scarlet Tracings an assigned book pops through the letterbox. :P

― Catty (Catty), Friday, 28 November 2003 13:30 (twenty-one years ago)

Sinclair is inpenetrable. For people who thought Pynchon was too accessible, only.

I only got a few pages into Albion, but honestly, I was living at the house of distractions at the time. Had I had less book choice available, I probably would have got more into it.

― Citizen Kate (kate), Friday, 28 November 2003 13:32 (twenty-one years ago)

Sinclair is great, but difficult. Exception is Lights Out For The Territory which is much more accessible than any of his other stuff (possibly excepting Orbital, which I haven't read yet).

― Ricardo (RickyT), Friday, 28 November 2003 14:36 (twenty-one years ago)

one year passes...

Peter Ackroyd

― Felix Leiter (nordicskilla), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:23 (nineteen years ago)

His Blake is one of my favorite biographies.

― Jay Vee (Manon_70), Wednesday, 13 July 2005 18:30 (nineteen years ago)

I still haven't finished Blake. There was a lot going on in my life when I started reading it. Maybe I should pick it up again.

― MIS Information (kate), Thursday, 14 July 2005 06:43 (nineteen years ago)

Dan Leno... is very good. Hawksmoor, on the other hand, I couldn't get past the first couple of pages of.

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:26 (nineteen years ago)

Oh no, let's not have this fite again! ;-)

― MIS Information (kate), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:31 (nineteen years ago)

Well, at least we agree about Dan Leno... :-)

(unless you have changed your mind in the last 3 years of course)

― Forest Pines (ForestPines), Thursday, 14 July 2005 10:33 (nineteen years ago)

one year passes...

I am contemplating travelling around London looking at all the Hawksmoor churches this weekend. Excitement.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 15:41 (eighteen years ago)

It is indeed an excellent trip to make.

But just so you know - that last spooky church in the book? Doesn't exist. (Though I had a discussion with an architectural historian that it might be based on St. Luke's, Old Street. Which fills the missing spot in the heptagon (was it a heptagon?) nicely.)

― Masonic Boom, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 15:45 (eighteen years ago)

MY GOD THE CHURCH DOES NOT EXIST?

I'll probably just print some "Hawksmoore Churches and you" guide from the Interweb and follow that, so probably would not even notice the missing one.

What I'd really like to do is the From Hell pentangle, but I reckon that is just not possible in a single day, especially given what faffers my belover and I are.

― The Real Dirty Vicar, Wednesday, 4 April 2007 22:30 (eighteen years ago)

four years pass...

New book soon?

― Jung Danjah (admrl), Friday, 19 August 2011 20:45 (thirteen years ago)

two months pass...

Got it today. psyched

― Hollis Frampton Comes Alive! (admrl), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 21:49 (thirteen years ago)

I saw it at the bookstore yesterday, but I think I will get it from the library first.

― tokyo rosemary, Wednesday, 2 November 2011 23:24 (thirteen years ago)

you can have my copy, I'll dip it in honey for you before sending

― Hollis Frampton Comes Alive! (admrl), Wednesday, 2 November 2011 23:29 (thirteen years ago)

ok!

― tokyo rosemary, Thursday, 3 November 2011 01:03 (thirteen years ago)

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