“The embrace of present and past time, in which English antiquarianism becomes a form of alchemy, engenders a strange timelessness. It is as if the little bird which flew through the Anglo-Saxon banqueting hall, in Bede's Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, gained the outer air and became the lark ascending in Vaughan Williams's orchestral setting. The unbroken chain is that of English music itself.”

English novelist, biographer and critic

Peter Ackroyd is an English novelist, biographer and critic, known for his work on the history and culture of London. He has built a large body of work and is widely noted for technically inventive fiction. His writing ranges across different styles, and he is praised for the way he can take on varied voices while drawing on deep research. That combination has made him a distinctive presence in contemporary English letters, with work that moves between invention, biography and literary criticism.