In 18th-century France, Enlightenment is at odds with the absolute power of the King, who is determined to suppress opposition on pain of death. Delphine Vimond flees to Paris after being cast out from her home in Rouen when her father is disgraced. Into her life tumbles Chancery Smith, apprentice printer from London, sent to […]
Hogarth: Life in Progress by Jacqueline Riding
On a late spring night in 1732, a boisterous group of friends set out from their local pub. They are beginning a journey, a ‘peregrination’ that will take them through the gritty streets of Georgian London and along the River Thames as far as the Isle of Sheppey. And among them is an up-and-coming engraver […]
The unsung heroes of Grub Street
Grub Street has been a synonym for hack journalism (and journalists) for over 300 years. But where would the hacks have been without being published? Ruth Herman looks at two once-famous printers, Grub Street’s unsung early heroes – or possibly villains, depending on whose side you took. We celebrate the British tradition of a free […]
Unboxing Pandora’s myth – in Georgian London
Susan Stokes-Chapman, author of Pandora, tells Historia why the Regency period is the perfect era for a retelling of a Greek myth – and how she went about unboxing it for her debut novel. As someone whose knowledge of Greek mythology went no farther than one module on the subject at university in 2004, I’m […]
Discovering Lady Mary Wortley Montagu’s porcelain
What does a biographer do when they learn something new about their subject after their book has been published? This happened to Jo Willett, author of The Pioneering Life of Mary Wortley Montagu, when she found out about some porcelain linked with the 18th-century smallpox inoculation pioneer. We’re delighted that Jo is sharing her discovery […]
The Empress and the English Doctor by Lucy Ward
Within living memory, smallpox was a dreaded disease. Over human history it has killed untold millions. Back in the 18th century, as epidemics swept Europe, the first rumours emerged of an effective treatment: a mysterious method called inoculation. But a key problem remained: convincing people to accept the preventative remedy, the forerunner of vaccination. Arguments […]
Damn’ Rebel Bitches by Maggie Craig
Too many historians have ignored the role of women in the Jacobite Rising of 1745. This book aims to redress the balance. Damn’ Rebel Bitches takes a totally fresh approach to the history of the Jacobite Rising by telling the fascinating stories of the many women caught up in the turbulent events of 1745-46. Drawn […]
Bare-Arsed Banditti by Maggie Craig
They were modern men, the soldiers of the Jacobite Rising of 1745: doctors and lawyers, students and teachers, gardeners and weavers. These are the men often written out of history, or else depicted as gallant but misguided fools. But in reality they were children of the Age of Reason, they wrote poetry, discussed the latest […]