This is a really fascinating book, I loved it! ( )

Less a biography and more a love letter. In fact more a collection of 5000 word love letters ranging on subject from the inane to the simply boring. Overuse of quotes and a lack of analysis beyong the fawning, there is nothing here for anyone other than trivia fans. It manages to be too narrow during each chapter, to broad overall and unfailingly shallow. Disappointing. ( )

This book contained interesting explorations of aspects of life in London throughout its history. I particularly appreciated chapters dealing with language, street life, and the rise of the coffee house. I got a sense of how London became the city it is today.

Excellent book,not chronological, each chapter can be read as a separate study of the personality of London throughout its long history

Peter Ackroyd's London: The Biography is a huge, sprawling, messy book, somewhat like London itself. Rather than look at London chronologically, Ackroyd moves back and forth in time while exploring different topics. This structure worked very well, as the various layers gradually form a picture of London as a whole. While Ackroyd does touch on major historical points (the Great Fire of 1666, the Blitz of World War II), his main focus is on broader themes such as economic development, poverty, health, urban sprawl, and crime.

London: The Biography was a long, sometimes tough read. I was interested in the social history, but not so much in the topography and geography. I tended to fade a bit when Ackroyd would go into long discourses on the history of development of a particular street, for instance. I often found the last paragraph of a chapter to be forced and a bit windy as he would try to segue from the topic of that chapter to the topic of the next. For the most part, however, his writing was lovely, painting strong pictures of London in all its facets.

My sense was that Ackroyd wrote this book for Londoners themselves, and he assumes a body of local knowledge and vocabulary that as an American reader I didn't have. I would have appreciated a glossary in the American printing. I wish I'd read this book years ago, though--I learned so much that I can directly apply to the fiction I read. ( )