The Lambs of London, Peter Ackroyd
The Lambs of London, Peter Ackroyd
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The Lambs of London
A Novel

Author: Peter Ackroyd

Narrator: John Keating

Unabridged: 6 hr 48 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/13/2023

Synopsis

A tour de force in the tradition of Hawksmoor and Chatterton, Peter Ackroyd’s new novel of deceit and betrayal is a witty reimagining of a great nineteenth-century Shakespeare forgery.Charles and Mary Lamb, who will achieve lasting fame as the authors of Tales from Shakespeare for children, are still living at their parents’ home. Charles, an aspiring writer bored stiff by his job as a clerk at the East India Company, enjoys a drink or three too many each night at the local pub. His sister, Mary, is trapped in domesticity, caring for her ailing, dotty father and her maddening mother.The siblings’ enchantment with Shakespeare provides a much-needed escape, and they delight in reading and quoting the great bard. When William Ireland, an ambitious young antiquarian bookseller, comes into their lives claiming to possess a “lost” Shakespearean play, the Lambs can barely contain their excitement. As word of the amazing find spreads, scholars and actors alike beat a path to Ireland’s door, and soon all of London is eagerly anticipating opening night of a star-studded production of the play.The perfect, lighthearted follow-up to Ackroyd’s magnificent biography of Shakespeare, The Lambs of London transforms the real-life literary hoax into an ingenious, intriguing drama that will keep listeners guessing right to the end.

About Peter Ackroyd

Peter Ackroyd is a master of the historical novel: The Last Testament of Oscar Wilde won the Somerset Maugham Award; Hawksmoor was awarded both the Whitbread Novel of the Year and the Guardian Fiction Prize; and Chatterton was short-listed for the Booker Prize. His most recent historical novel was The Clerkenwell Tales. He is also the author of Shakespeare: The Biography and the Ackroyd’s Brief Lives series.

About John Keating

John Keating's numerous acting credits include Roundabout Theatre's production of Juno and the Paycock and La Mama ETC's production of Cat and the Moon, as well as various parts with the Irish Repertory Theater and the Irish Arts Center. He is a regular performer with the Independent Shakespeare Company and can also be seen in the HBO original mini-series John Adams, starring Paul Giamatti and Laura Linney. John's audiobook narrations have earned Earphone Awards and an Audie nomination. Most notably, he's read Eoin Colfer's Airman, Avi's The Traitors' Gate, and Jenny Nimmo's The Snow Spider. He also lent his voice to many of Patrick Taylor's Irish Country audiobooks.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Fabian on January 19, 2020

Riveting, complex & super well written, "The Lambs of London" is yet another fully submersive foray into a previous age from Ackroyd, whose magnum opus I feel ultimately to be "Hawksmoor." Here, we deal not with gothic architecture but with the Bard himself, ultimate emblem for all good British thin......more

Goodreads review by Frank on January 25, 2011

A rather strange little book for a number of reasons. In the first place, the eponymous characters, the brother-and-sister authors Charles and Mary Lamb (1775-1834 and 1764-1847 respectively) were not the main characters of this story. That honour belonged to one William Henry Ireland (1775-1835), f......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth (Alaska) on October 28, 2021

I picked this up at the library book sale 8 or 9 years ago. It is on the 1001 list and I wanted to take advantage of its availability (at 50 cents!). Obviously, it has languished on my shelf, patiently waiting my attention. I ignored it because I thought it was a biographical novel of people about w......more

Goodreads review by Peter on September 06, 2022

Charles and Mary Lamb are still living at their parents’ home. Charles, an aspiring writer, works as a clerk at the East India Company, and enjoys a drink or three too often at the local pub. Meanwhile his sister, Mary, is trapped in domesticity, caring for her ailing father and her maddening mother......more

Goodreads review by Virtuella on April 04, 2013

It's a nice, easy read, fairly entertaining, falling a little flat at the end. Apparently based on painstaking research, though if it had been completely made-up, it would have made little difference to me. There are two rather jarring sex scenes that have no connection with the story and which I fe......more

Quotes

“[A] gorgeously textured fictional narrative…English essayist Charles Lamb is the focal point around which Ackroyd tells a stylish, intelligent, and suspenseful tale.” Booklist (starred review)

“Steeping readers in revealing but unobtrusive period detail, Ackroyd once again delivers a psychologically rich evocation of a vanished time.” Publishers Weekly

“A delicious entertainment, faithful to its period, but done with the lightest of touches…Nobody knows this world better than Peter Ackroyd, and his latest foray into bygone London finds him at the top of his form.” Sunday Telegraph (London)

“Touching and ingenious.” Times Literary Supplement (London)

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