London: The Biography
Product Details | Similar Products | Customer Reviews | Author: Peter Ackroyd List Price: £14.99 Our Price: £8.99 You Save: £6.00 (40%) Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours  |
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 | Product Details: Paperback 848 pages Release Date: 21 August 2008 Publisher: Vintage ISBN: 0099422581 Rating:   Sales Rank: 1370 | | Look for similar books by subject:
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| | Customer Reviews: Interesting for the most part (20 November 2008)As a life long Londoner and a person well read in history this book was just up my street. It was a well written book packed with all sorts of fascinating details. For the most part I enjoyed reading it although it could occasionally be long winded and tedious. Limited history (08 August 2008)Rambling, unfocused, poorly researched, and little real history. An enjoyable holiday read perhaps, but those looking to learn about the origins of this great city should look elsewhere. Most of the discussion centers on the 17th and 18th centuries and most of the anecdotes come from only two souces. The author could have taken the trouble to do a little more research! Very disappointing. London Marathon (13 January 2008)Couldn't/wouldn't get into it. Have read very little of it, and it was some time ago and I don't really remember it, so have no right to comment. Especially in the midst of such distinguished reviewers who have displayed the qualities required of anyone who completes the London Marathon. But I will anyway. Viz: I can relate to some reviewers' sentiments. Some, though not all. One of those choice few I addressed as follows: ---- Talk of damning with faint praise! You seem to want to praise it like most of the other reviewers, but you let slip the fact that it doesn't really work for you until Page 772! Well, I personally can't be bothered to plough all the way through to Page 772 to get the gold! It's not as though there aren't any other books out there or other things I could be doing besides reading for that matter. The following just sprang to mind regarding what [little] I've seen of Ackroyd's work: [Onerous and] ponderous [portentous] tome, heavy with obsessiveness and lacking a certain leaven of lightness, charm and humour. To my mind, anyway. Others have different minds, obviously. Maybe I'll post this and see what happens if I dare to go against the flow! ---- Oh no! I've just posted it! Well, I'll just have to sit back and see what happens. 'Tis all theatre, I'll tell myself as the brickbats fly. Ouch! Sorry, sorry. I take it all back. Ouch! London in all its glory (23 December 2007)I love London and am constantly excited about learning more about this, in my opinion, the best city in the world. This book is fascinating and if you can't get through it all in one go (it's a monster of a book) then you can dip in and out of it. I would recommend it to anyone whether or not you know the city well. Love it or hate it... (31 July 2007)Whether you love London or hate London, you have to admit that it has been a world-important city for centuries, perhaps millenia. Living in the place it is very easy to actually love and hate it at the same time. The detailed and well-researched book by Peter Ackroyd decribes the highs and lows of London from pre-history to 2000. The writer's strong and accessible style brings the city to life to the extent that one can almost hear it and smell it. Only one very minor quibble about people moving to the United States after the Great Fire - over a century before there was a United States - calling it the American Colonies would have been better. But that should not detract from Ackroyd's description of a city that was almost a country within a country for much of its history, and in some ways perhaps still is. | |
