The Life of Thomas More

(Paperback)

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Description

The story of one of the greatest minds of the English Renaissance told by the best literary biographer of our time. Thomas More is one of the great figures in English history. Pre-eminent as a courtier and as a humanist, a friend to Henry VIII and the author of Utopia, More's life and career epitomise the great transformation of England in the space of 35 years. Ackroyd investigates the paradox of this 'man for all seasons'- the man of the world who travelled across Europe to negotiate on behalf of his king, and the unworldly man who's careful silence on the matter of Henry's marriage to Anne Boleyn would lead to his disgrace and execution. A magnificent achievement, The Life of Thomas More gives us a rich portrait of the man and the social and cultural world in which he lived.

Reviews

Full of brilliant insight, and one stands in awe of Ackroyd's learning, confident that this is the life of Thomas More for our times * Independent on Sunday *
Thanks to Ackroyd's skill, scrupulous research and inspired interpretation of historical texts, vital sparks of life have been breathed into the austere icon * Daily Mail *
Marvellously vivid... He has an excellent visual sense and a sharp eye for hte particularities of daily existence... His is a reliable, colourful and deeply enjoyable life of an extraordinary man * Guardian *
Ackroyd tells More's story with imaginative sympathy and impeccable scholarship...masterly * Observer *
Comprehensive and subtle... Ackroyd imbues his book with a pregnant richness of colour which makes one almost smell and hear 16th-century London... It has been said that Ackroyd is today's best writer about London, and this biography adds to that reputation * Mail on Sunday *

Author Bio

Peter Ackroyd is an award-winning historian, biographer, novelist, poet and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed non-fiction bestsellers London: The Biography, Thames: Sacred River and London Under; biographies of figures including Charles Dickens, William Blake, Charlie Chaplin and Alfred Hitchcock; and a multi-volume history of England. He has won the Whitbread Biography Award, the Royal Society of Literature's William Heinemann Award, the James Tait Black Memorial Prize, the Guardian Fiction Prize, the Somerset Maugham Award and the South Bank Prize for Literature. He holds a CBE for services to literature.