Page 10 - Peter Ackroyd News Today

Posted on Tuesday, March 16th, 2021 by Kalyn Corrigan Fascination with the occult has long been a fixation in the minds of many across the globe. Whether it be a perverse manifestation of the panic which sets in among all classes when the balance begins to shift toward greater individual freedom, an overdue opportunity to express guilt and sin under the guise of accusations against innocent victims, or just wanting to check out your astrology horoscope for the week, the idea of witches and witc...

The Gordon Riots "June 1780 [witnessed] the worst mob riots of the eighteenth century. Lord George Gordon was a born incendiary of extreme, almost insane, views. … He established an association, in the style of the time, and the Protestant Association soon came to include men of property, artisans, London apprentices and those elements of the city that were known as the mobile vulgus or more colloquially the mob." Peter Ackroyd, The History of England, Volume IV The year 1780 was well after...

I like happy endings: Leigh Hobbs We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss By Leigh Hobbs Normal text size Credit:Leigh Hobbs Tottenham Court Road in London. While it is a bit of a mess, it’s where the road leads that I like. Heading down Tottenham Court Road and into Charing Cross Road, past a run of nondescript Victorian buildings and drab 1970s / 1980s interlopers, the pay-off starts as soon as I spot the spire of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Passi...

The British wool industry is in crisis - heres how Prince Charles wants you to help Wool prices have halved in the last year, but this winter’s fashion for chunky jumpers and warm woollies could be a solution 20 January 2021 • 6:00am A cardigan by British label Palava, which uses wool from British sheep Credit: Emli Bendixen When the Prince of Wales carried out a science experiment at Clarence House, it made me rethink my wardrobe (and no, that’s not a sentence I ever thought I would writ...

William Blake’s childhood vision on Peckham Rye is well known. Sauntering along, he looks up and, according to an early biographer, ‘sees a tree filled with angels, bright angelic wings bespangling every bough like stars’. On another occasion, he ran indoors declaring he had seen the prophet Ezekiel under a tree. His wife, Catherine, later reported that Blake first saw God at the age of four. I love that ‘first’. The Bible’s vivid prophetic and visceral apocalyptic imagery stirred h...

Published January 7, 2021, 3:08 PM Three novels in this review will fall under the genre of science fiction and fantasy, but it’s illuminating to discern how different the three are from each other. A fourth novel is a quirky, darkly humorous tale that highlights the English and why they’re so peculiar. Doing Time by Jodi Taylor Think of time travel as a rousing police adventure, and you’ll have some idea of the reading pleasure that this novel places in your hands. Known for her The Ch...

Fiction reviews: The brilliant Homeland Elegies and three more titles We’re sorry, this service is currently unavailable. Please try again later. Dismiss Fiction reviews: The brilliant Homeland Elegies and three more titles By Kerryn Goldsworthy Normal text size Credit: What a breathtaking book this is. Not only is it the most seamless blend of fiction, autobiography, essay and social history that I’ve ever read, it is also both emotionally and intellectually engaging, and it covers a h...

In Revolution, Peter Ackroyd takes readers from William of Oranges accession following the Glorious Revolution to the Regency, when the flamboyant Prince of Wales ruled in the stead of his mad father, George III, and England was—again—at war with France, a war that would end with the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo. Late Stuart and Georgian England marked the creation of the great pillars of the English state. The Bank of England was founded, as was the stock exchange; the Church of England...

Updated Dec 24, 2020 How did Charles Dickens beloved Christmas story become a trophy for a Wall Street titan? By Zachary D. Carter Marc Janks/HuffPost Gather round, friends, and savor a holiday fable for our bitter age. As in the Charles Dickens classic  A Christmas Carol, the villain of this story is money. It features its own Ebenezer Scrooge and ghosts of moral compunction. But the ending of our tale has been adjusted: Money prevails and Scrooge dies miserable and rich, but not before buy...

“Satan Exulting over Eve” (1795), by William Blake; graphite, pen and black ink, and watercolor. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles “Satan Exulting over Eve” (1795), by William Blake; graphite, pen and black ink, and watercolor. The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles Blake was here, now he’s not “Songs of Innocence and of Experience, Plate 42, ‘The Tyger’” (1794), by William Blake; color-printed relief etching with watercolor. Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon...