The Canterbury Tales: A retelling by Peter Ackroyd

Dec 17, 2025 12:32 AM

Author:Peter Ackroyd,Geoffrey Chaucer

Making a major part of England's literary heritage accessible to a new audience, Peter Ackroyd's The Canterbury Tales: A Retelling renders Geoffrey Chaucer's timeless tales in lucid, compelling modern English prose, with illustrations by Nick Bantock in Penguin Classics.

On a pilgrimage to Canterbury, a group of travellers agree to a storytelling competition. As they make their way on the road, they drink, laugh, flirt, argue and try to outdo each other with their tales. From the exuberant Wife of Bath's Arthurian legend to the Miller's worldly, ribald farce, these tales can be taken as a mirror of fourteenth-century London. Incorporating every style of medieval narrative - bawdy anecdote, allegorical fable and courtly romance - the tales encompass a blend of universal human themes, retold here for our times by bestselling author Peter Ackroyd.

The edition also includes an introduction by Ackroyd, detailing some of the historical background to Chaucer and the Tales, and why he has been inspired to translate them for a new generation of readers.

Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400) was an English author, poet, philosopher, courtier and diplomat, best known as the author of The Canterbury Tales. Chaucer is credited as being the first author to demonstrate the artistic legitimacy of the vernacular English language. The first poet to have been buried in the Poet's Corner of Westminster Abbey, his other works include The House of Fame, Troilus and Criseyde and The Book of the Duchess.

Peter Ackroyd (b. 1949) is an award-winning writer and historian. Formerly literary editor of The Spectator and chief book reviewer for the The Times, he is the author of novels such as Hawksmoor (1985) and The House of Doctor Dee (1993), as well as non-fiction including Dickens: Public Life and Private Passion (2002), London: The Biography (2000), and Thames: Sacred River (2007).

'Ackroyd's retelling is compulsive, bold and rare ... as fresh as new paint'

Observer

'The only version to read'

Time Out

Reviews

Ackroyd's 'retelling' is compulsive, bold and rare and will surely become a vital crib for generations of students to come.

—— Robert McCrum , Observer

Now I have read it and reread it, and have come to accept the characters as old friends.... Indeed, I feel about going to Africa very much as the sea-faring rat did when he almost made the water-rat wish to forsake everything and start wandering!

—— Theodore Roosevelt

For generations of English children, the gentle adventures of Mole, Rat, Badger, Toad and the other characters from The Wind In The Willows have been part of the magic of growing up; a world of innocence and simplicity too soon left behind

—— Daily Mail

It is a book that breaks nearly every rule of modern children's fiction...it wasn't about fairies at the bottom of the garden, but it was about magic - just the right kind of magic. It thrills me still to read it.

—— Shirley Hughes , The Times

Wears its thorough research lightly... fitting that this ambitious revision of slave narratives should have won the overall Commonwealth Writers' Prize in the year that the American electorate demolished one of its most persistent categories of exclusion

—— Independent

Epic... a compelling tale well told... an important story to tell, one that gives a sense of individuality to people who might otherwise be drowned out in the tragic chorus of history

—— The Times Literary Supplement

[Hill] has an easy style and a fine sense of pace that make this a gripping, if horrifying story

—— Financial Times

Wonderfully written... populated by vivid characters and rendered in fascinating detail

—— The New York Times

Lawrence Hill's hugely impressive historical work is completely engrossing and deserves a wide, international readership

—— Washington Post

A powerful indictment of the way in which so many innocent victims were robbed of everything dear to them

—— Yorkshire Evening Post

An unforgettably vivid picture of the Atlantic slave trade... a remarkable achievement, which deservedly won the Commonwealth Writers' Prize

—— Spectator

A masterpiece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail

—— The Globe and Mail

Aminata is a heroic figure... you can never forget this character. She embeds herself in your heart

—— Toronto Star

Previous Article：The Wind in the Willows Next Article：Heroes of the Valley

Comments

Welcome to zzdbook comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.