He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and appointed a CBE in 2003. Born in Boston in 1809 to traveling actors and orphaned in 1811, Poe was adopted by Richmond, Va., merchant John Allan. Amoongst his best-known works of non-fiction are: London the Biography, London the Concise Biography, London Under, Thames: Sacred River, Venice: Pure City, a multi-volume history of London ( Foundation, Tudors, Civil War, Revolution) and Queer City as well as biographies of Geoffrey Chaucer, William Shakespeare, Charles Dickens, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock. Bringing his novelist's skills to bear, Ackroyd opens with Poe's mysterious death in 1849: Like his narratives and his fables, Poe's own story ends abruptly and inconclusively. His non-fiction ranges widely, although he is often called a ‘London writer’ as much of his work is devoted to the city and its most famous residents. His other fiction includes: The English Ghost and his own re-telling of The Canterbury Tales and The Death of King Arthur. Other novels in the London sequence include: The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, Milton in America and Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem. An expert in nineteenth-century literature and London writers, Ackroyd’s fiction often displays Victorian and Gothic influence and he is known for his experimental blurring of the lines between past and present, as in his acclaimed novel Hawksmoor which won the Whitbread Novel Award and the Guardian Fiction Prize.
Peter Ackroyd’s early literary career saw him publish poetry before beginning his ‘London sequence’ with his debut novel, The Great Fire of London - a reworking of Charles Dickens' novel Little Dorrit.
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