Rating: 
Summary: Like the City, an organic work in progress
Review: As far as I am concerned, you can have Paris in the springtime. Give me London in the rain.
Ackroyd's book shares many characteristics with its namesake - it is crowded, organic, chaotic, and full of life. It also shares many of the City's faults - it's hard sometimes to find what you are looking for, and you can look in vain for any reason behind the juxtapositions of different cultural artifacts. Nevertheless, anyone who has spent more than the obligatory few days in the obligatory tourist sites will recognize the city from Ackroyd's prose.
One may complain that Ackroyd lingers too much on London's history of crime, social unrest, and dirt. Well, what do you expect of a city that boasts having had the "Great Stink" of 1858? Casual travelers, people who are looking for a simplistic history to read while in line for Madame Tussaud's, and anyone who desires a Disney-fied, Mary Poppins fantasy will be unhappy with this book.
But if you want to know what London _feels_ like, this book comes closer than anything else I have read to making me feel like I do when I am there. There is no city better for aimless wandering, stumbling through alleys, exploring the Underground, and observing the small details. It is a world-city grown pell-mell by greed, lust and need, with beauty in unexpected places and quiet rarer than gold, and more precious. In short, it is life. And, as Samuel Johnson famously said, "when a man is tired of London, he is tired of life; for there is in London all that life can afford."
Rating: 
Summary: A Remarkable Work
Review: Everyone can tell stories about their hometown and anecdotes about the place they grew up, some of which are true, some of which are dubious, and some of which are outright fabrications. I can tell you stories about my small hometown in Massachusetts which can alternately put you to sleep or amuse you. Imagine someone telling you stories about London; stories which over 2000 years have been embellished and polished to the point where they might be considered mythology. Consider these stories ranging over the whole course of the city's life, and you have some idea of what this book is like. It is a breathtaking book, where anecdotes of Rome, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, The Victorian Era, and today are all seamlessly mixed in a wonderful stew. I cannot imagine the amount of scholarship that went into this work; I rather think that Mr. Ackroyd is some type of immortal who has experienced these stories and anecdotes of London firsthand. This is a truly wonderful book to give to any Anglophile friends you may have; it is history at its compelling best, long on anecdote and short on drudgery. It is also written extremely well; there is never a jarring turn of phrase in the book. Well worth the hardbound price, this is the perfect Christmas present to anyone you know who has lived in London, been to London, or who loves history.
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Summary: Learn about London through the centuries
Review: Great book to read, very detailed in research. Can become a bit boring after reading through its many pages, but still great to have for its varied information.
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Summary: A Great Book For A Wonderful City!!!
Review: Having lived in England for three years and having visited this wonderful city on more then one occassion I found this to be a very nice book to have as a keepsake of my stay in England.
London is a strange mix of modern and old and this book is a wonderful introduction to this amazing city. Mr. Ackroyd has managed to pen a book that will take you back to it's very beginning, and then slowly through narrative, and picture bring you up through her amazing history. London has see so much, and if you have never visited this historic city then you will want to after you have finished reading this book. This is a good book for either reading for pleasure or as a reference book. This book covers all manner of historical details that pertain to this city. Mr Ackroyd address the issues of art, society, architecture, and political issues. Truly is this an all encompassing book that will make a great addition to anyone's personal library.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Book For A Wonderful City!!!
Review: Having lived in England for three years and having visited this wonderful city on more then one occassion I found this to be a very nice book to have as a keepsake of my stay in England. London is a strange mix of modern and old and this book is a wonderful introduction to this amazing city. If you have never visited this historic city then you will want to after you have finished reading this book. This is a good book for either reading for pleasure or as a reference book. This book covers all manner of historical details that pertain to this city.
Rating: 
Summary: Not a "biography", but a series of impressions
Review: Having reading the other reviews of this book, most of which were "raves", I'm willing to give it the benefit of the doubt. It may, in fact, be a marvelous book, assuming that you know what you're getting, which emphatically is NOT a biography. Instead, it is a collection of very vivid impressions -- London's sounds, the smells, the appearance of various neighborhoods, etc. In the process you may get a feeling for London's colorful history, but this is by no means a "history" or "biography" in any ordinary sense. Peter Ackroyd's more traditional-style biography of Sir Thomas More was one of the best things I'd read in a long time and, consequently, I was very much looking forward to this London "biography". Since I was expecting something on that order, I was very disappointed. Again, this book may be very well worth reading (I'll defer to the other reviewers on this one), if you know what to expect. I, for one, would not have bought this (rather expensive) book.
Rating:
Summary: Definitive
Review: How can one read a book of almost 800 pages in the midst of a busy life? This question is daunting to many readers.
As a Londoner permanently fascinated by my birthplace I started this immense read by dipping into aspects that first interested me, because the contents are conveniently arranged by subject area (theatre, architecture, etc.). Then I expanded my interests until, finally, I had read it all--at least at a superficial level. Only repeated readings will enable the reader to assimilate it as part of an individual intellectual landscape and memory. This is a veritable 'groaning board' of data.
Peter Ackroyd's scholarship is meticulous and results in a work of dense information matched by high levels of entertainment--he is an excellent writer. However well one might know individual aspects of London, there are constant surprises and insights that engage the curious reader.
This is not a tourist guide book, quite unlike the various 'London walks' offerings that are frequently delightful and helpful, but is the Ackroyd's attempt to explain the mystery of London over the centuries. It is a tribute to the immense effort he put into this work that it works well at many levels. His 'Essay on Sources' with which he closes the book is itself a mine of information and will send many readers scurrying to the bookshelf or library for further exploration.
For anyone with a love of London, this is essential reading.
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Summary: Wonderful! Mother London in all her cruel glory.
Review: I read this on Michael Moorcock's recommendation. Moorcock is the acknowledged father of the London antimodernists (a kind of 21st century PreRaphaelite literary movement associated with a fascination for ancient stories, popular culture and literary experiment). He has frequently praised Mr Ackroyd's biographies. Dickens, one of Ackroyd's first biographies, was a revelation to me and his Blake was the most remarkable exercise of its kind. While Ackroyd lacks the reputation for experiment shared by his colleagues Iain Sinclair (of Downriver and Lights Out For The City) and Michael Moorcock (King of the City, London Bone and Mother London) he is actually a rather clever subversive, presenting a highly idiosyncratic image of his native city which, like the images of Dickens and Conan Doyle, takes us over. Ackroyd's vision of London becomes more real than the reality.
It is certainly more valid than most realities tourists experience on their brief skim across this ancient, beautiful, ugly, cruel, humane city where so much of our history begins. This is an outstanding book. It has warmth, enthusiasm. It informs on more than one level. I have fallen in love with it!
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Summary: THE BOOK OF THE YEAR!!!
Review: I want to warn you that if you start reading this book you will not be able to put it down.This sounds like a cliche but it is true.
Mr.Ackroyd is definitely a master of words and knows his subject very well.
I would say that he is Dickensian when writing about his beloved London.
So ,make room on your bookshelf for the book of the year for 2001!
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Summary: Outstanding non-narrative history of London
Review: If you enjoy London, or urban history, then this book will be fascinating. If you need or prefer narrative history starting at the beginning, and working chronologically through to the end, or the present, then this book is not for you. I found the organization fascinating, and enjoyed reading it while visiting London recently.
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