Ackroyd, Peter

(1949- )

   Born in London, he was educated at St. Benedict's School, Ealing, and graduated M.A. from Clare College, Cambridge (1971), and was a Mellon Fellow at Yale University (1971-1973). He worked at The Spectator magazine between 1973 and 1977 and became joint managing editor and film critic in 1978. He was nominated a fellow of the Royal Society in 1984 and is currently a regular radio broadcaster and book critic. In 1986 he became the principal book reviewer for The Times newspaper. He was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2003 and has won nine major literary prizes and awards. His poetry career started with London Lickpenny (1973) and The Diversions of Purley (1987). He is better known for his fiction and non-fiction publications, including biographies, of which the latest are Turner (2005) and Newton (2006). The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde (1983) is a reconstruction through the eyes of Wilde of his last years living in poverty in Paris. London: The Biography (2000) is a discussion of London through the ages. Some of his poems: "All These," "And the Children," "It Would Be Easy," "The Day."

   Sources: Contemporary Writers in the UK (www.con temporarywriters.com). Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. Microsoft Encarta 2006 (DVD). Microsoft Corporation, 2006. P.E.N. New Poetry. Robert Nye, ed. Quartet Books, 1986. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry. Columbia University Press, 2005 (http:// www.columbiagrangers.org). The National Portrait Gallery (www.npg.org.uk). The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. Who's Who. London: A & C Black, 2005. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia (http://en. wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia).