UNITED KINGDOM AUTHOR · FICTION · HISTORY
Peter Ackroyd
Also known as: ACKROYD, PETER
Peter Ackroyd is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a particular interest in the history and culture of London. For his novels about English history and culture and his biographies of, among others, William Blake, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot and Sir Thomas More, he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards. He is noted for the volume of work he has produced, the range of styles therein, his skill at assuming different voices and the depth of his research. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Literature in 1984 and appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003. - Wikipedia
He might saw a woman in half, as one of his favorite real-life murderers did.
— from Alfred Hitchcock, 1980
Most acclaimed
Alfred Hitchcock
1980
"Alfred Hitchcock was a strange child. Fat, lonely, burning with fear and ambition, his childhood was an isolated one, scented with fish from his father's shop. Afraid to leave his bedroom, he would plan great voyages, using railway timetables to plot an exact imaginary route across Europe. So how did this fearful figure become the one of the most respected film directors of the twentieth century? As an adult, Hitch rigorously controlled the press's portrait of him, drawing certain carefully selected childhood anecdotes into full focus and blurring all others out. In this quick-witted portrait, Ackroyd reveals something more: a lugubriously jolly man fond of practical jokes, who smashes a once-used tea cup every morning to remind himself of the frailty of life. Iconic film stars make cameo appearances, just as Hitch did in his own films: Grace Kelly, Cary Grant, and James Stewart despair of his detached directing style and, perhaps most famously of all, Tippi Hedren endures cuts and bruises from a real-life fearsome flock of birds. In [this book], Peter Ackroyd wrests the director's chair back from the master of control and discovers what lurks just out of sight, in the corner of the shot,"--Amazon.com.
Hawksmoor
The story of Scotland Yard's Nicholas Hawksmoor's investigation of a string of homicides runs parallel to the story of eighteenth-century architect Nicholas Dyer.
Revolution
"From New York Times best-seller and science fiction and fantasy mistress of adventure Mercedes Lackey, Book #3 in a new pulse-pounding saga of modern-day humans with superpowers. The metaheroes deal with supervillain Verdegris, who seeks to destroy them from within, before turning their attention back to the Thulian conspiracy. It's go time once again for the meta-heroes including fire-bender John Murdock, hacker-witch Vikki Nagy, healer Belladona Blue, super-quick Mercurye-and most of all for their ghostly ally, Seraphym, the spirit of the world Verdegris knows he must trap and destroy her if he is to take down the metas. From New York Times best-seller and science fiction and fantasy mistress of adventure Mercedes Lackey together with a team of topnotch collaborators, the third entry in the blockbuster saga of superpowers-and the very human men and women who must learn to wield them. About World Divided: "[C]omes together seamlessly.an awesome and lightning-paced story: read it on a day when you will not have to put it down."-San Francisco Book Review About Mercedes Lackey: "With [Mercedes Lackey], suspense never lags..." -Kliatt"-- "It's go time once again for the meta-heroes including fire-bender John Murdock, hacker-witch Vikki Nagy, healer Belladona Blue, super-quick Mercurye--and most of all for their ghostly ally, Seraphym. She is the spirit of the world. Verdegris knows he must trap and destroy her if he is to take down their enemy"--