Peter Ackroyd

Author Julian Wolfreys: Julian Wolfreys is Professor of Modern Literature and Culture at Loughborough University, UK. He was previously Professor in Literature at the University of Florida, USA. His teaching and research is concerned with 19th- and 20th-century British literary and cultural studies, literary theory, the poetics and politics of identity, and the idea of the city. He is the series editor of Transitions and has written many course texts for Literature students, notably The English Literature Companion.

• Abbreviations Foreword by Peter Nichols Acknowledgements Introduction: The 'Ludicrous' Text of Peter Ackroyd 'A Tiny Light/Seen in the Mind's Eye as a Phoneme': The Poetry 'A Bit of a Game': The Styles of Peter Ackroyd I: The Great Fire of London, The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde, Hawksmoor 'A Bit of a Game': The Styles of Peter Ackroyd II: Chatterton, English Music, First Light, Milton in America 'Endless Variety': Writing the City in the Biographies, The House of Doctor Dee , and Dan Leno and the Limehouse Golem Three Interviews with Peter Ackroyd: 26th August, 1989, 4th January, 1995 and 21st December, 1997 Works Cited Index

'The Laughter of Peter Ackroyd - no, this is not a novel by Agatha Christie, it is just what this exhilarating and brilliant book by two critics, one deceased, the other alive, and who never met, will make you hear: a polyphonic and polymorphous perverse laughter that keeps resounding in the ludic labyrinth of our libraries. Jeremy Gibson and Julian Wolfreys lead us in and out of this enjoyable maze by writing definitive autotextography of the most gifted literary murderer and resurrectionist of today.' - Jean-Michel Rabaté, Professor of English, University of Pennsylvania'Julian Wolfreys and Jeremy Gibson provide readers with the kind of original and far-reaching criticism that Peter Ackroyd's oeuvre has always deserved. Innovative and thought-provoking, this insightful volume should inspire a new scholarly appreciation for Ackroyd's considerable artistic accomplishments.' - Kenneth Womack, Professor of English, Pennsylvania State University'Much like Ackroyd's novels, Peter Ackroyd becomes a moving and entertaining conversation which readers will want to join in with...' - Jenny Bavidge, University of Greenwich, MLR