WRITER

Peter Ackroyd

1949 - Today

Photo of Peter Ackroyd

Icon of person Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd (born 5 October 1949) is an English biographer, novelist and critic with a specialist 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, Charlie Chaplin and Sir Thomas More, he won the Somerset Maugham Award and two Whitbread Awards. Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Peter Ackroyd has received more than 690,251 page views. His biography is available in 32 different languages on Wikipedia. Peter Ackroyd is the 4,674th most popular writer (up from 4,818th in 2019), the 3,370th most popular biography from United Kingdom (up from 3,684th in 2019) and the 379th most popular British Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 690k

    Page Views (PV)

  • 48.50

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 32

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 3.27

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 3.98

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

Dickens
English Novelists, Biography, Nonfiction - General
1990
1984
Chatterton
Fiction, Literary forgeries and mystifications, Poets
1987
Hawksmoor
Detectives, Murder, Police
1985
Shakespeare
English Dramatists, Nonfiction, Biography & Autobiography
Drawing on an exceptional combination of skills as literary biographer, novelist, and chronicler of London history, Peter Ackroyd surely re-creates the world that shaped Shakespeare--and brings the playwright himself into unusually vivid focus. With characteristic narrative panache, Ackroyd immerses us in sixteenth-century Stratford and the rural landscape--the industry, the animals, even the flowers--that would appear in Shakespeare's plays. He takes us through Shakespeare's London neighborhood and the fertile, competitive theater world where he worked as actor and writer. He shows us Shakespeare as a businessman, and as a constant reviser of his writing. In joining these intimate details with profound intuitions about the playwright and his work, Ackroyd has produced an altogether engaging masterpiece.From the Trade Paperback edition.
2005
T.S. Eliot
Biography, American Poets, Eliot, T. S. (Thomas Stearns), 1888-1965
1984

Page views of Peter Ackroyds by language

Over the past year Peter Ackroyd has had the most page views in the with 69,206 views, followed by Russian (10,358), and German (3,377). In terms of yearly growth of page views the top 3 wikpedia editions are West Frisian (88.16%), Malayalam (79.03%), and Basque (63.10%)

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Peter Ackroyd ranks 4,674 out of 7,302. Before him are Süreyya Ağaoğlu, H. C. Artmann, Juan José Arreola, Stephen Baxter, Elias Khoury, and Michalina Wisłocka. After him are Paweł Huelle, Nikolai Tikhonov, August Jakobson, Tobias Wolff, Samo Chalupka, and Gillian Rubinstein.

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1949, Peter Ackroyd ranks 403. Before him are Emanuel Ax, Rubén Pagnanini, Kurt Beck, Alexander Maltsev, Mart Helme, and Olivier Roy. After him are Paco Ignacio Taibo II, Hugo Sotil, Anthony Denison, Jonathan Carroll, Carlos Babington, and Anatoliy Konkov.

Others Born in 1949

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In United Kingdom

Among people born in United Kingdom, Peter Ackroyd ranks 3,370 out of 8,785. Before him are Nigel Kennedy (1956), Alan Cumming (1965), Eva Le Gallienne (1899), Trevor Bolder (1950), Stephen Baxter (1957), and Simone Perrotta (1977). After him are Alexander McDonnell (1798), Robert W. Paul (1869), Gillian Rubinstein (1942), David Octavius Hill (1802), Harold Spencer Jones (1890), and Henry Bishop (1786).

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Among WRITERS In United Kingdom

Among writers born in United Kingdom, Peter Ackroyd ranks 379. Before him are W. S. Gilbert (1836), Sarah Kane (1971), Grace Aguilar (1816), Thomas Middleton (1580), Taylor Caldwell (1900), and Stephen Baxter (1957). After him are Gillian Rubinstein (1942), Edward Thomas (1878), John Mawe (1764), James Thomson (1700), Edward William Lane (1801), and Michael Frayn (1933).

British born Writers

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