The Life of Thomas More

This biography follows Thomas More from a London childhood in the household of Cardinal Morton through Lincoln's Inn, humanist friendship with Erasmus, service under Henry VIII, the chancellorship, and the refusal of the oath that led to the Tower and execution in 1535. Ackroyd keeps the city in view: parishes, law courts, the river, and More's Chelsea household with Alice and the children. Letters, polemics against heresy, and the trial speeches sit beside domestic routine. The book is a life of one lawyer-statesman, not a general history of the English Reformation.

Three-quarter-bound in black cloth with a Modigliani paper front board, blocked and printed with a colour image by Neil Packer.