Peter Ackroyd is a prolific writer whose novels, biographies, and works of non-fiction have attracted a wide audience and sustained acclaim. He started out as a poet and a critic, but soon found his niche as a novelist who delights in ransacking the past and rewriting its literary and cultural histories in a manner associated with postmodernist fiction. The majority of his novels center on London, as does most of his other work. The English capital is the site for delving into a number of recurring themes: the influence of place upon the psyche, the spiral nature of time, impersonation and imitation, the Catholic heritage of England, Englishness, occult beliefs, and strained father-son relationships. His characters are often transformations of real-world figures such as the poet Thomas Chatterton, the music hall performer Dan Leno, and the essayist Charles Lamb. Ackroyd was born on October 5, 1949 and brought up on a modest East Acton council estate in west London. His parents…