The Georgian era was unique, so unlike what preceded it and never since repeated. What would it have been like to live there? With no welfare and little charity, people lived on their wits alone, and the sweat of their brow. There was a huckster on every street corner, a pickpocket in every crowd, and cheap gin was readily available to drown every conceivable sorrow. What was it like to live in a smuggling community where the criminals made the rules and enforced them arbitrarily, brutally, and without hindrance? How would you survive the highwayman intent on taking your riches, your dignity, and your life too, if required?

But Georgian Britain also underwent a great flourishing in the arts, commerce, industry and innovation. It was a time of great opportunity should you have the means to seize it. For all its harsh realities, the Georgian era is also famous for its gentility and refinement, for the pottery of Josiah Wedgwood, the furniture of Thomas Chippendale, the sculpted landscapes of Capability Brown, the elegance of the Georgian Ball, the romantic and evocative novels of Jane Austen, but also the tawdry excesses of the Prince Regent and the cutting edge of the satirist’s pen.

Let this book be your guide to the past, and learn from their own lips the conversation, what drove the narrative, what was whispered in the taverns and shouted in the streets. It was a time of excess, but of great achievement too, a transformative time that changed Britain forever. So be prepared, buckle up, and enjoy the ride.