The Lambs of London Author:Peter Ackroyd Mary Lamb is confined by the restrictions of domesticity: her father is losing his mind, her mother watchful and hostile and their maidservant, Tizzy, elderly and infirm. The great solace of her life is her brother Charles -- but he feels equally constrained by the drudgery of his work at the East India Company, taking refuge in drink while sp... more »reading his wings as a writer. Sometimes, in the evenings, they study together. Mary reads what Charles reads. She falls for a bookseller's son. Can Mary Lamb --vulnerable, sheltered, idealistic -- survive such an introduction to the many frailities of human nature? With The Lambs of London, Peter Ackroyd returns to some of the obsessions of Chatterton, which was short-listed for the Booker Prize. His historical fiction frequently draws inspiration from the lives and characters of real people from the past.« less