historian
After a decade of researching the artisans of London during the eighteenth century, in 2009 I began blogging the stories I had accumulated in the course of my work. These were not the stories of politics, the elite, or the legacy of historians of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, but what I believed about the ordinary men and women of Georgian London. The blog explored relationships, crime, literature, disability, personal hygiene, jobs, sexuality, charity, money, sport and shopping; it gained instant traction. It is the largest body of study on eighteenth century London freely available online. It’s ‘award-winning’ – in January 2010 it won an unprecedented two Cliopatrias in the US History News Network’s Awards and is used as a secondary source by students from institutions such as King’s College London, University College London and Christie’s. It has featured in The Times, the Guardian and Time Out.
My book on London between the Restoration and the Regency will be out in hardback on September 5th 2013, published by Penguin. It will chart the development of the city we know today through ideas, people and built history (and sex, slavery, politics, money, theatre, literature and working life), as well as the stories of the marginalised and the dispossessed. Writing it has been fun, tough, uplifting and poignant in equal measures; I hope it will be the same to read.
Some nice things about GeorgianLondon.com
‘Read and be amazed by a city you thought you knew.’ Dr Jonathan Foyle
‘Fun and engaging posts covering day to day trivia and the more bizarre aspects of eighteenth-century London life. One of the best history blogs out there.’ The Digital Scholar
‘From London’s 18th century rookeries, to being a dwarf in 18th century England, to Jeremy Bentham and the birth of a surveillance society, to what it was like to have gout, to bizarre birth stories from Gentleman’s Magazine, Georgian London informs, instructs, and entertains us on ordinary life in 18th century London, emphasizing especially the artisan and immigrant populations of the city. This is fascinating social history presented in blog form, and is a terrific younger entrant into the burgeoning history blog scene.’ History News Network
‘The focus is, as the title suggests, all eighteenth-century London all the time…and the more you know, the more wonderful it gets, at once more real and more fantastic.’ Erin O’Connor, Critical Mass