To watch King Lear is to approach the recognition that there is indeed no meaning in life, and that there are limits to human understanding. Peter Ackroyd approachhumanking Change image and share on social
I just wanted to be an ordinary, middle-class person. When I was at Cambridge, I made great efforts to lose the last remnants of my Cockney accent. Peter Ackroyd accentcambridgeclass Change image and share on social
You don't have to be brought up in a grand house to have a sense of the past, and I truly believe that there are certain people to whom or through whom the territory - the place, the past - speaks. Peter Ackroyd bringgrandhouse Change image and share on social
The 16th-century theatre witnessed the particularly English manifestation of 'the history play.' There can be no doubt that Shakespeare's presentations of 'Henry V' and 'Richard III' have been incalculably more influential than any more sober historical study. Peter Ackroyd 16thcenturydoubt share on social
When I was a child I wanted to be Pope. My greatest disappointment is missing out on that. I also wanted to be a tap dancer but I never fulfilled that ambition either. Peter Ackroyd ambitionchilddancer Change image and share on social
It may seem unfashionable to say so, but historians should seize the imagination as well as the intellect. History is, in a sense, a story, a narrative of adventure and of vision, of character and of incident. It is also a portrait of the great general drama of the human spirit. Peter Ackroyd adventurecharacterdrama share on social
I wanted to be a poet when I was 20; I had no interest in fiction or biography and precious little interest in history, but those three elements in my life have become the most important. Peter Ackroyd biographyelementfiction Change image and share on social
The English have always been greedy for news of times past, with that mixture of fatalism and melancholy which is part of the national character. Peter Ackroyd characterenglishfatalism Change image and share on social
His head was boiled, impaled upon a pole and raised above London Bridge. So ended the life of Thomas More, one of the few Londoners upon whom sainthood has been conferred and the first English layman to be beatified as a martyr. Peter Ackroyd beatifyboilbridge share on social