Peter Ackroyd - The History of England. Volume I. Foundation [2011][A]

Book Description
Publication Date: September 2, 2011
Having written enthralling biographies of London and of its great river, the Thames, Peter Ackroyd now turns to England itself. This first volume of six takes us from the time that England was first settled, more than 15,000 years ago, to the death in 1509 of the first Tudor monarch, Henry VII.
In it, Ackroyd takes us from Neolithic England, which we can only see in the most tantalising glimpses – a stirrup found in a grave, some seeds at the bottom of a bowl – to the long period of Roman rule; from the Dark Ages when England was invaded by a ceaseless tide of Angles, Saxons and Jutes, to the twin glories of medieval England – its great churches and monasteries and its common law. With his extraordinary skill for evoking time and place, he tells the familiar story of king succeeding king in rich prose, with profound insight and some surprising details. The food we ate, the clothes we wore, the punishments we endured, even the jokes we told are all found here, too.

Editorial Reviews
From Booklist
*Starred Review* The first volume of Ackroyd’s prospective six-tome history of England extends from Stonehenge to the extinction of the Plantagenet dynasty by Henry Tudor. The strongest impression Ackroyd acquired from his survey of land and time is that of the role that habit, custom, and contingency plays in shaping history. He repeatedly repudiates a view of English history as a conscious progression toward, for example, Parliament. Similar institutions associated with England, such as Christianity and common law, arise as incremental accretions in Ackroyd’s accounts. His treatment of 1066 is characteristic. He concedes the consequentiality of the Norman conquest while emphasizing the persistence of native modes of life, such as the vernacular language that eventually, albeit not for three centuries, with Chaucer, supplanted the invaders’ French as the language of society and the governing elite. The battles for the crown supply most of Ackroyd’s narrative, but while the Hundred Years’ War and the Wars of the Roses rumble on, the peasants till the soil, quaff ale, and periodically raise pitchforks and torches. The hugely popular Ackroyd’s ease of erudition ought not to be missed. --Gilbert Taylor

Reviews
Praise for Foundation:
“Ackroyd has drawn a large, loyal readership in his native land. Over some 50 books, he has seldom strayed far from the subject of the past and the traces it has left in the present. And the history that interests him most is the kind touching on national memory and a sense of place, ‘longing and belonging,’ in his memorable phrase.”—The New York Times Book Review

"Ackroyd's trademark insight and wit, and the glorious interconnectedness of all things, permeate each page."—Observer (UK)

"Ackroyd brings delightful but revealing details of the lives of the people from the past into the present."—Sunday Express (UK)

"With Foundation, Ackroyd makes a compelling case to be the country's next great chronicler."—Time Out (London)

“Given his eye for detail and the near-mythic writing in books like Thames: Sacred River, [Foundation]—not surprisingly, a huge best seller in England—promises to be an original read.”—Library Journal

“The hugely popular Ackroyd’s ease of erudition ought not to be missed.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Once again, Ackroyd exhibits his magic touch with the written word, this time with the first in a six-volume history of England.”—Kirkus Reviews

"An extraordinary book...Peter Ackroyd is arguably the most talented and prolific writer working in Britain today."—Daily Express (UK)

“Ackroyd paints a portrait of early England that is both historically rich and compellingly human.”—Shelf Awareness

“[Ackroyd] is a natural storyteller and a passionate historian, but his true skill lies in his acute eye for revealing interesting details.”—San Francisco Book Review

Praise for Peter Ackroyd:
"Marvelously erudite and staggeringly industrious."—Los Angeles Times

"For Ackroyd, the past isn't merely past; it's alive."—The Boston Globe

"Ackroyd is a medium through which the obscured voices of the past are channeled."—Newsday

"His best work is in his marvelous cultual visions...because they convey a comprehensive and frequently dark sense of the English character and its vagaries."—Harold Bloom, The New York Times Book Review

“Given his eye for detail and the near-mythic writing in books like Thames: Sacred River, Ackroyd’s latest—not surprisingly, a huge best seller in England—promises to be an original read. For all those Anglophiles.”—Library Journal

About the Author
PETER ACKROYD is an award-winning novelist, as well as a broadcaster, biographer, poet, and historian. He is the author of the acclaimed Thames: Sacred River and London: The Biography. He holds a CBE for services to literature and lives in London.