While virtually all of his novels are superbly written and thoroughly enjoyable, I do, at times, find that there is something lacking, as though he seems unable to penetrate beyond this theme and the idea of the lives of his characters (real and fictitious) intertwining. Not only does the present not stand alone, resting on the past, but the past never fully goes away but comes back into the present in often unpredictable ways.
Clearly, for Ackroyd, the past cannot be separated from the present. All his novels can be read – with much enjoyment – as gloomy, historical mysteries where the past and present intertwine. As can be seen from the titles, many of his novels are peopled with actual historical characters. His novels are generally similar in style – they are usually set in London, involve some mystery and mix the past with the present, with the past usually having a major and often fatal effect on the present. Peter Ackroyd is a distinguished biographer – he has written biographies of Blake, Dickens, Eliot and Pound.
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