Author: Peter Ackroyd

Cites

• Ronald Corvo (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: I often envisage, in this new age of universal and instanteneous communication, how our planet might appear to distant observers. It must seem to shimmer in a state of continual excited activity, rather like a round diamond in the sky.
    FROM: A New Theory of the Earth, (1999), Fictional , NULL
• Joseph P. (2)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Slivers of light. Silvers. Little horn-shaped lights, riding the waves of darkness.
    FROM: Diaries, (1999), Fictional, NULL
• NULL (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: We who survive, we scoured ones, in depths of dark dismay, call out of the night of our world, gone as we knew it, as we know it.
    FROM: London, hymn, (1999), Hymn, UK
• Myander (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: Myander, a Londoner, wrote the history of a changing world, beginning at the moment of transition, believing that it would mark a great epoch, one more worthy of relation than any that had come befpre. This belief was not without its grounds. The world of science had collapsed, but the divine consciousness of humanity had not yet asserted itself. All the labours of Myander lay in recording the manifest signs of dismay and wonder. Since the events of distant antiquity, even those immediately preceding the great change, cannot clearly be understood she believed it her duty to enquire carefully into the immediate circumstances.
    FROM: History, (1999), Fictional, NULL
• Proclamation (2)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: The city bears us. The city loves its burden. Nurture it in return. Do not leave its bounds.
    FROM: NULL, (1999), Fictional, NULL
• The London Intelligence (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: The components of the light have been carefully studied. In addition to manifold influences on the human plane, such as will and desire, there are tokens of power from the earth itself. The smallest territory can exert its influence, moving those who come within its boundaries. This city, for example, is not indifferent to the joys or sufferings of its inhabitants.
    FROM: NULL, (1999), Fictional, NULL
• Letter from Popcorn to Mellitus (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: I cannot pretend to have been present during the glorious restoration of human light, the greatest and perhaps most significant scene in the narratives of humankind. Yet I believe that I am blessed in another sense, living on the verge of a new age. All around me I am beginning to see greatness and munificence erected, while our citizens with wonderful zeal have tried to revive and emulate the labours of distant antiquity. When asked why they are engaged in this pursuit, they reply 'Why not? What else is there to do?' This is our new spirit!
    FROM: NULL, (1999), Fictional, Na
• Proverbs of Restituta, guardian of London (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: In returning to the origin of things, we meet our destiny. Do you see our doubles, passing by us weeping? This is the nature of our world.
    FROM: NULL, (1999), Fictional, NULL
• Anon (1)
  • IN: The Plato Papers (1999) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: It is sometimes considered wayward or importunate to paint a portrait of one man, yet we know from the pictures of parishioners lit upon the Wall of our great and glorious city that a single feature or glance may embody a fateful moment or an eventful transaction. So I intend to conjure up a likeness of Platio, the great orator of London, in a similar fashion. I will practise the art of selection; like the displays of our actors continually before us, some events will be presented on a grand scale and others diminished. The conventions of spherical drama will be preserved from the beginning to the end; the revelations and lamentations, for example, will be strict keeping with each other. By these means we may see his unhappily brief life as a continual search after truth. But it will also be my duty faithfully to record Plato's final days in the city and to ascertain how a cruel superstition exercised boundless dominion over the most elevated and benevolent mind.
    FROM: The Plato Papers, (1999), Fictional, NULL
• Thomas Chatterton (2)
  • IN: Chatterton (1987) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: So have I seen a Flower ynn Sommer Tyme Trodde down and broke and widder ynn ytts pryme.
    FROM: The Story of Wyllyam Canynge, (None), NULL, UK
• Rudyard Kipling (1)
  • IN: First Light (1989) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: But if he spoke it would mean that all this world would end now -- instanto -- fall down on your head. These things are not allowed. The door is shut.
    FROM: The Finest Story in the World', (1891), NULL, UK

Cited by

• Kate Rhodes (1)
  • IN: River of Souls (2016) Fiction, British
    EPIGRAPH: The Thames is in many respects the river of the dead. It has the power to hurt and to kill.
    FROM: Thames: Sacred River, (2007), Book, UK