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The Lambs of London
 
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The Lambs of London (Hardcover)

by Peter Ackroyd (Author)
3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
RRP: £15.99
Price: £13.59 & this item Delivered FREE in the UK with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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The Lambs of London + The Clerkenwell Tales + Hawksmoor
Price For All Three: £24.63

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 228 pages
  • Publisher: Chatto & Windus; First Edition edition (5 Aug 2004)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0701177446
  • ISBN-13: 978-0701177447
  • Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 15.2 x 2.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 212,757 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in this category:

    #38 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > A > Ackroyd, Peter

Product Description

The Times

'wonderful novel...masterly. Tender, funny and humane, this is as good as anything he has written'


Product Description

At the centre of this intriguing, irresistible novel are the young Lambs: Charles, constrained by the tedium of his work as a clerk at the East India Company, taking refuge in a drink or three too many while spreading his wings as a young writer, and his clever, adoring sister Mary, confined by domesticity, an ailing, dotty father and a maddening mother...Into their lives comes William Ireland, an ambitious 17-year-old antiquarian and bookseller, anxious not only to impress his demanding showman of a father, but to make his mark on the literary world. When Ireland turns up a document in the handwriting of Shakespeare himself, he takes Mary into his confidence - but soon scholars and actors alike are beating a path to the little bookshop in Holborn Passage. Touching and tragic, ingenious, funny and vividly alive, this is Ackroyd at the top of his form in a masterly retelling of a 19th-century drama which keeps the reader guessing right to the end.

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Customer Reviews

7 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (1)
3 star:
 (2)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Tragically beautiful, 24 Feb 2008
By Didier (Ghent, Belgium) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Lambs of London (Paperback)
I've read several of Ackroyd's novels (and some of his biographies), and whereas most of those are pretty intricate and 'deep' (by lack of a better word) 'The Lambs of London' is in comparison a very easy book. In a very simple but therefore all the more poignant language it tells the tragic story of Mary and Charles Lamb (brother and sister, both feeling trapped and stifled by the life they lead). By pure coincidence Charles buys a book that supposedly once belonged to Shakespeare from the young bookseller William Ireland, and before long the mysterious William will change their lives forever.

Not only these three principal characters but also the novel's minor characters (Charles' and Mary's parents, William's father, ...) are all beautifully depicted, with their (secret) dreams, hopes and desires leading them on until there's no turning back...

I loved it from the first page to the last.
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13 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The Lambs of London, 1 Oct 2004
By A Customer
I feel bound to offer a counterbalancing opinion to that mooted by Daniel from Bedworth, who did not take to this story of 'Londons [sic] "artistic" [no idea why he put this in quotation marks] community'.

The Lambs of London is a well-crafted novel, interweaving fiction and literary history deftly. It concerns the infamous 'discovery' of Vortigern, one of Shakespeare's lost plays, by William Ireland, a precocious teenage forger, and Ireland's relationship with siblings Charles and Mary Lamb, two amateur Shakespeare scholars. It evokes London at the beginnings of the Romantic period with accuracy and feeling, and, crucially, it sends us back to Shakespeare with rekindled enthusiasm. By no means a two-star novel.

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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A truly wonderful and magnificent read!, 19 Jul 2006
By FAMOUS NAME (UNITED KINGDOM) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)      
This review is from: The Lambs of London (Paperback)

This is the first book I have read by Peter Ackroyd, but will no doubt be the first of many! I could not put this book down - for someone who has a rule of only to read in bed and at bedtime, I found myself trotting through to the bedroom to retrieve it during the day! I found the whole story captivating from the beginning until the very last sentence! I could believe in the characters and the story was woven with feeling, sympathy and much love, though there appeared to be somewhat of an 'open wound' at the end with regard to the tragic figure Mary Lamb, and her adoration of William Ireland. I loved this book so much, I immediately sought out and purchased 'Chatterton' by the same author.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Very pleasurable read
A wonderfully colourful story based around a famous forgery of alleged works by Shakespeare. Ackroyd describes London scenes and characters as only he can and this is an absolute... Read more
Published 9 months ago by John Hopper

3.0 out of 5 stars Not Ackroyd's best
Yes, the story is a bit bland, and the surprise ending barely so. I think I would have liked more about the Lambs, actually.
Published 20 months ago by Jezza

3.0 out of 5 stars Puzzled
Whilst this is beautifully written and offers well-observed characters, the true story of Mary Lamb is even more intriguing and heart-breaking than Peter Ackroyd's fictionalised... Read more
Published on 1 Jun 2007 by Pilgrim

2.0 out of 5 stars Another Ackroyd puzzler
The Lambs of London is a work of fiction framed around an event that actually happened. It tells the tale of the discovery of some lost works of Shakespeare and the relationship... Read more
Published on 28 Sep 2004 by Daniel

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